The Last Will & Testament of Senhor da Silva Araújo

by Germano Almeida, Sylvia Glaser, Sheila Glaser (Translator)

New Directions is proud to introduce the masterwork of Cape Verde's greatest living writer, Germano Almeida: an ironic and original tragic-comedy from a new voice in African literature. Everyone in Cape Verde knows Señor da Silva. Successful entrepreneur, owner of the island's first automobile, a most serious, upright, and self-made businessman, Señor da Silva is the local success story. Born an orphan, he never married, he never splurged; one good suit was good enough for him; and he never wandered from the straight and narrow.

Or so everyone thought.

But when Señor da Silva's 387-page Last Will and Testament is read aloud; a marathon task on a hot afternoon which exhausts reader after reader; there's eye-opening news, and not just for the smug nephew so certain of inheriting all Señor da Silva's property.

With his will, Señor da Silva leaves a memoir that is a touching web of elaborate self-deceptions. He desired so ardently to prosper, to be taken seriously, to join (perhaps, if they'll have him) the exclusive Grémio country club, and, most of all, to be a good man. And yet, shady deals, twists of fate, an illegitimate child: such is the lot of poor, self-critical Señor da Silva. A bit like Calvino's Mr. Palomar in his attention to protocol and in his terror of life's passions; a bit like Svevo's Zeno (a little pompous, a little old-fashioned, and often hapless), Señor da Silva moves along a deliciously blurry line between farce and tragedy: a self-important buffoon becomes a fully human, even tragic, figure in the arc of this hilarious and touching novel - translated into Spanish, German, French, Italian, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish, and now, at last, English.

Genres: Africa, Fiction, Cabo Verde, African Literature, Portuguese Literature, The World, Literary Fiction

152 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Germano de Almeida nasceu na ilha da Boavista, Cabo Verde, em 1945. Licenciou-se em Direito em Lisboa e exerce actualmente advocacia na cidade do Mindelo. Estreou-se como contista no início da década de 80, colaborando na revista Ponto & Vírgula. A sua obra de ficção representa uma nova etapa na rica história literária de Cabo Verde. Está publicada em Portugal pela Caminho e começa a despertar interesse no estrangeiro, nomeadamente o romance O Testamento do Senhor Napumoceno da Silva Araújo, do qual vários países compraram os direitos, encontrando-se já publicado no Brasil, na Itália e França. O filme de baseado nesta obra (O Testamento do Senhor Napumoceno) foi recentemente galardoado com o 1º Prémio do Festival de Cinema Latino-Americano de Gramado, no Brasil; foi igualmente distinguido com os prémios para o melhor filme e melhor actor no 8º Festival Internacional Cinematográfico de Assunción, no Paraguai.

Reviews

[Luís · Rating 3 out of 5]

“O Testamento do Sr. Napumoceno da Silva Araújo” is a bittersweet chronicle evoking the life and customs of Cape Verde society throughout the last decades of Portuguese colonization.

[Emma Deplores Goodreads Censorship · Rating 2 out of 5]

In this novella, a rich businessman, Napumoceno da Silva Araujo, has just died, leaving a surprising will; everyone assumed the straitlaced old bachelor led an abstemious life, but it turns out he had his share of sexcapades. The book is set in Cape Verde, an island nation off the west coast of Africa, but – fittingly perhaps, as the islands were first settled by the Portuguese – reads more like a Latin American novel than an African one, with its Portuguese names, single paragraphs that span multiple pages, and obsessive focus on OMG SEX!

The story is told mostly through Napumoceno’s eyes, relating the events of his life as he wrote about them. We also see Maria, his secret illegitimate daughter, as she learns about the man she never knew was her father and befriends the nephew who’d assumed himself to be the heir. There is not any strong plotline to provide an organizing principle for these reminisces. The translation is fluid, though the writing isn’t always as clear as it could be. The characters get some development but never really grabbed me, though there are a couple of good scenes. The writing is not especially visual, but does provide some sense of the society in Cape Verde in the middle decades of the twentieth century.

One particular episode bears mentioning. Maria is the daughter of Napumoceno’s one-time cleaning lady, who one day happens to be wearing a skirt in Napumoceno’s favorite color. Unable to restrain himself, he pounces on and rapes her, despite her resistance. (I couldn’t make this stuff up, y’all.) She’s not happy, but by the next day she is totally over it, and they then have a “consensual” relationship. I have to say, I am having trouble thinking of anything grosser in literature than books by men portraying women who don’t mind being raped.

So, though the opening initially grabbed me, I can’t recommend this one. On to something better, and good riddance to it.

[Teresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

O senhor Napumoceno, empresário rico do Mindelo, nunca casou nem se lhe conheceram namoradas. Até se murmurava, que teria morrido virgem. Na leitura do testamento — uma obra de 387 páginas — vem-se a saber que afinal o homem, além de perder a cabeça por mulheres com saia verde, tinha outros "pecadilhos".

Embora considere o personagem um burgesso pelo seu comportamento com as mulheres, gostei do modo como Germano Almeida conta esta história; com simplicidade, humor e a dose certa de drama na parte do suspiro final do senhor Napumoceno.

[Rita · Rating 3 out of 5]

Arrancou-me algumas gargalhadas, mas em alguns momentos achei demasiado cansativo.

[Sara Jesus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Um livro muito divertido! Não se deixem enganar pelo título. O Sr. Napumoceno (apesar do seu nome estranho) é uma figura muito complexa e excêntrica. Era um comerciante muito rico, que aventura-se pelo mundo deixando o seu sobrinho Carlos tomando conta dos negócios. Apaixona-se em velho por Adélia que aparece e desaparece da sua vida. E por último deixa uma filha sem nunca conhecer verdadeiramente o seu pai.

Muito original o modo como a história é narrada. A vida do Sr. Teixeira (o Napumoceno) é contada através da leitura do seu testamento. Desde do início sabemos que está morto, no entanto isso não impede de ser hilariante conhecer as peripécias da sua juventude e velhice. Uma daquelas obras para guardar sempre na memória!

[dianne b. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A life created from uncut ideas, a philosophy shared with only yourself. Why burden ourselves with others’ opinions? Senhor Araujo strictly adhered to his internal fantasies. This filmy glance through a retrospectoscope at a seriously unquestioned life, not unexamined, just unquestioned. Another world is possible, just not a real one.

“But Carlos has turned out to be an ungrateful relation and as the good man I am and always have been, I have the moral obligation never to forgive him.”
Furthermore, since Araujo paid for his schooling, albeit only for a couple years, he felt that he could take credit for any ideas that Carlos had, and claim them as his own. Right?

“She even concluded that toward the end of his life he’d also begun to be interested in Buddhist philosophy because she’d found passages in his texts in which he defended the merits, necessity, and utility of concentrating on and within ourselves in the search for what others call nirvana but which he preferred to call a state of pacific indolence.”

Hilarious, tragic, brilliant and highly recommended.

[Sonia Gomes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Senhor Napumoceno da Silva Araújo’s funeral was conducted with great solemnity as befitted a man of his bearing and demeanour for he was after all a leading business figure in Mindelo, the archipelago of Cabo Verde.
The Chief mourner, his nephew Carlos conducted himself with dignity and poise; he was Senhor Napumoceno’s ‘Sole heir’. Sadly, Senhor Napumoceno had never found time in his extremely busy and convoluted world of business and women for a mundane act such as marriage, he always pushed it out of his mind. He was dapper, and of course very, very rich, women he knew would come flocking and they did.
Carlos took his role of the ‘Sole heir’ very seriously and on the day of the funeral nobody could have faulted his grief.
One of the stipulations in a letter to him was that instead of a brass band playing, as was customary at every funeral in Cabo Verde, Beethoven’s ‘Marcha Funebre’ should be played. Now that was a terribly difficult undertaking for Carlos, nobody even knew what Beethoven’s Marcha Funebre was, but Carlos with his customary tenacity did manage to get a recording of the Marcha Funebre.
Carlos was determined that his uncle, Napumoceno da Silva Araújo, should lack for nothing on his last earthly voyage…
But the show must go on, the intricacies of business wait for no man, so on the very next day a very suave Carlos went to his Uncle’s Office.
Carlos responded to the polite ‘Bom Dia Senhor Carlos’, at his Uncle’s Office with gravity, but hey did you notice the spring in his step? The air of nonchalance? The little jaunt to the hips?
Carlos enters the sanctum sanctorum, Napumoceno da Silva Araújo’s Office, and then caution to the winds, decorum forgotten;
Carlos is full of glee, ‘the old man is dead! Dead and I am his ‘Sole heir’. How would his own portrait look instead of that of the old fossil?

But wait a minute, Carlos; there is this tedious business, the reading of the Testament. The formal reading began in the evening and there seemed no end to it, it was as though Napumoceno da Silva Araújo did not want his heirs to inherit a sou, without they being aware of the trajectory his entire life had taken.
So he began with his extremely humble beginnings, he meandered through his rise in business, with digressions into his many liaisons with women.
Poor Carlos, had suggested that he read the Testament in the peace and quiet of his house. ‘Unethical’ said the Notary, ‘you have to read it in the presence of the witnesses and everyone has to sign.’
So they read and read. The Notary confessed to his throat being dry. The witnesses took over reading; it went on……every little detail of his long life.
But just a minute, just when it seemed to be only a dreary narration of events... Napumoceno, springs a surprise that kills any hopes that Carlos ever had of being his Sole heir.
Napumoceno has an illegitimate daughter, Maria de Graça, daughter of his housekeeper Dona Chica, and it is she and not Carlos who would inherit his wealth.
What went wrong, how did the relationship with Carlos sour?
Was it because Napumoceno saw in Carlos’ eyes, the same hunger that he Napumoceno used to have? Yes, Napumoceno never trusted Carlos, for they were so alike.
Did Napumoceno have liaisons with other women, Oh yes, many.

But the love of his life was Adelia, the beautiful Adelia who strangely disappears.
In addition to his vast heritage, Napumoceno bequeaths his daughter, Maria de Graça, a collection of his audio tapes; where he describes his life in minute detail never omitting a single event.
Maria de Graça, tries to piece her father’s life with these tapes, but like any person’s life, the narrative has lacunae that she is unable to fill.

On the other hand, her quest and her desire to learn more about her father, brings her closer to Carlos her cousin and Dona Eduarda the new housekeeper.
Germano Almeida, the author of this wonderful book, wants to show his audience, that parallel worlds do exist in our society and in our lives. This he does admirably with wit and sarcasm.
The desperate battle of a boy with no shoes who comes to São Vicente to get rich but forgets that his nephew Carlos has the same desire...
Forgets how Carlos works so very hard to make the business a huge success and very ungratefully disinherits him...
Like so very many rich people, Napumoceno loves to give but the recipient should be eternally grateful, never should the recipient forget.
When he died Senhor Napumoceno, was a much respected businessman, a man of integrity, a serious man with no vices.
When the Testament is read, he is revealed a much different person. He is revealed a human being, with all his myriad faults but also his many strengths.
Aren’t we all the same?

[Rambling Raconteur · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://youtu.be/yrSXLBlPuT4

[Nadia · Rating 3 out of 5]

عبر وصية مسترسلة نتعرف على حياة السيد نابوموسينو أراوجو التاجر و الحبيب و الأب.

[Missy J · Rating 3 out of 5]

With hesitation, I picked up this book. It's on my list of books to read around the world, and this story is set in Cape Verde. I'm always a bit hesitant when reading works that were translated from Portuguese. The stories are fantastical and somewhat romantic, but always lacking. They seem incomplete, maybe something got lost in translation?

In this book by Germano Almeida, we learn that the protagonist Senhor Napumoceno has died. His only nephew and business partner Carlos eagerly awaits to inherit everything owned by his uncle. But the will of Senhor Napumoceno turns out to be a memoir divulging all his secrets, including that of an illegitimate daughter Garca.

The sentences in this book were unbelievably long and one can easily get lost in them. Luckily, I managed to get into the flow of the story and just let the tide carry me all the way to the end. It's not a long book anyway. Like most lusophone literature from Africa, this one reminded me a lot of Latin American magical realism and its unstructured and unreasonable way of narration. I'm glad I read this, but at the same time unsure what the message of this book is.

...denn was bringt es dem Menschen, allen Reichtum der Welt zu erlangen, wenn er seine Seele verliert? Kein Vermögen ist so gross, dass es unseren Frieden ersetzen könnte.

[Harry Rutherford · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Last Will and Testament of Senhor da Silva Araújo (translated from the Portuguese by Sheila Faria Glaser) is my book from Cape Verde for the Read The World challenge. For those who don’t know, Cape Verde is an island nation, an archipelago off the coast of Africa at about the point where the continent projects furthest into the Atlantic. It was uninhabited until the Portuguese started using it as a trading port, I learn from Wikipedia, and the population is largely of mixed European and African origin.

That history may explain why it feels more like a book from Latin America than from Africa. I would be hard-pressed to explain exactly what I mean by that: a sense that the European cultural influence is more deeply embedded is part of it, although I can’t immediate articulate what makes me say that. It may be no more than the fact that the book is full of names like Senhor da Silva Araújo, of course.

The book tells the story of a self-made local businessman; it starts with the reading of his will, which reveals unexpected news, and moves back and forward through his life, building up into complex portrait. It’s short — 151 pages — but nicely written, wryly humorous and open to the absurdities as well as the tragedies of the human condition.

[Val · Rating 4 out of 5]

In his final years, did Senhor da Silva Araújo write his will or his memoir? Either way it takes several hours to read and comes as a big shock to his nephew and presumed heir, not to mention something of a scandal in wider Cape Verde society.
It is an examination of a life lived, decisions made for good or ill, the consequences of those decisions and a soul laid bare. It starts with the story of Senhor da Silva Araújo's life as he looks back on it, told thematically rather than chronologically, but continues with his nephew's and his illegitimate daughter's view of his life, which makes them look at their own. As befits a study of the human condition, it is by turns sad and funny, successful and regretful, absurd and glorious.

[Andy Weston · Rating 2 out of 5]

Entertaining enough, but comes over as a bit dated. It would have made a good short story.

[Sara Bôto · Rating 3 out of 5]

Não é o meu livro preferido, de longe. Não é sequer o meu exemplar de literatura africana predileto. Não o utilizaria para apresentar a literatura caboverdiana a alguém que a não conheça, porém, é bastante bom no que toca às questões que apresenta, nomeadamente a ideia de testamento - visto como pedra lapidar sobre o morto, espécie de última palavra que a pessoa deixa ao mundo muito após o seu desaparecimento. O testamento, normalmente, está associado ao ato de esclarecer, de clarificar as questões que amigos e familiares possam ter em relação ao defunto. O testamento do Senhor Napumoceno, no entanto, só coloca ainda mais questões e serve apenas para fazer dele um personagem ainda mais confuso e indefinível. Isso é o mais interessante do livro. É confuso e de difícil leitura, mas, passando essa parte à frente, chegamos à conclusão de que é um livro muito inteligente e bem concebido. Gostei.

[Sara · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think what I appreciated most about this book was the style and the language. The person would shift (from third, narrator, to first, whoever the narrator was talking about) mid-paragraph and there was something about that style that led to a really interesting fluidity to the prose. The story itself is not that compelling. There is also a rape scene mid-novel that made me unsure I really wanted to continue with the story simply because of how casually it was handled by the author, as casually as describing any other action in the novel. I read this book with little knowledge of Cape Verde and would have perhaps gotten more out of it with a deeper cultural context to the story - but I'm not convinced.

[Sandra The Old Woman in a Van · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, this felt like homework. Almeida’s novel was my pick for Cape Verde, in my around the world reading journey. Written over 30 years ago in a satirical style, the humor and the characters fell flat for me. I’m just glad it was a short book. I learned a bit about Cape Verde, so that worked, but otherwise I’m going to be forgetting this book soon.

[Bookguide · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bookray: www.bookcrossing.com/journal/7416296. Received 16th February 2011.

I found this a sad story of a man who basically wasted all the chances in his life to find himself happiness by not acting on his feelings, or acting too late. He could have married Dona Chica and had a happy family life, but was too worried about his reputation. He did chase the lady from Dakar, but she left him with quite another legacy, which he also delayed dealing with. He missed his moment with Dona Joia, postponing his letter too long, and being in any case too tentative, and the mysterious Adélia was not free when he wanted her, and by the time she was, he was no longer interested. His greatest success was his business, and even that he delegates to his nephew Carlos, and yet does not trust him to run it without him. He remains distant from everyone, and even runs his business at a distance with the minimum of bother by selling direct from the ship and the dock and re-exporting many of his imports.

Not surprisingly, I found myself unable to engage with Senhor Napumoceno da Silva Araújo, and so in the end, I found the book unresolved and uninspired. I was hoping to get more of a picture of life in Cape Verde, which turns out to me a nation made up of several islands, several hundred miles off the coast of West Africa. Looking up Germano Almeida on Wikipedia, I read that this book is supposed to show Sr. Napumoceno as a relic of colonialism, but I can't see that, either. A pleasant enough book, but unmemorable.

[Meaghan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though this book is quite short, only about 150 pages, it left me with a lot to think about. It tells the life story of one Napumoceno da Silva Araujo, a respected and rich Cape Verdean businessman who died at a very old age and left a shocking will that was over 300 pages long and bequeathed everything to the bastard daughter no one knew he had.

The story, particularly in the beginning describing the funeral, is extremely funny in its way. It is also notable for showing how various people's perceptions of the same events can be so different as to be come almost unrecognizable. Araujo's nephew, for instance, through his eyes is a slimy, arrogant, deceitful Uriah Heep type character, but his newfound cousin Maria de Graca sees him as a likable enough man who bears no grudge against her, and they become friendly with each other.

Normally I can't stand overlong paragraphs and run-on sentences in books, and this book had plenty of both, but for some reason I didn't mind this time. I didn't think I would enjoy reading this nearly as much as I did, and I wish I could seek out the author's other novels, but none of them have been translated into English.

[Plano Nacional de Leitura 2027]

Romance de estreia de Germano Almeida, «O Testamento do Sr. Napumoceno da Silva Araújo» é considerado um marco de inflexão na literatura cabo-verdiana. Através da leitura do seu testamento, o leitor vai tomando conhecimento da história de um dos mais ricos comerciantes de Cabo Verde, O sr. Napumoceno, e apercebendo-se, num jogo de humor, ironia e contradições, de facetas inéditas da figura desta protagonista, que se vai revelando cada vez mais denso, ambíguo e contraditório.

ISBN:
978-972-21-2944-2

CDU:
821.134.3(665.8)-31

Livro recomendado PNL2027 - 2019 2.º Sem. - Literatura - dos 15-18 anos - maiores 18 anos - Mediana - Fluente

[Nils · Rating 1 out of 5]

That was horrible. Told in a stream of consciousness, which I don't think was executed very well, it describes the life of a guy who is pretty shitty. The actual story is lame, women are largely described as sex objects and even when a woman is raped, she only reacts with pity towards the one who raped her. What the fuck. On the plus side, the book was only 172 pages long.

[Gemma · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sinceramente, no me ha gustado. El protagonista me ha caído muy mal, lo que ha provocado que me la sude su vida, y la narración sin separar los diálogos me ha parecido algo liosa y que ralentizaba la lectura de forma innecesaria. El primer capítulo prometía mucho, pero luego, para mí, va cuesta abajo y sin frenos. Lectura obligatoria de portugués.

[Mena Mobarak · Rating 3 out of 5]

قصة لطيفة وإن كان مطّها مبالغ فيه.

[Rita (the_bookthiefgirl) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5⭐️

Germano de Almeida nasceu em Cabo Verde e chegou a fazer a tropa em Angola, numa zona de confronto. Recebeu uma bolsa da Gulbenkian para estudar Direito na Universidade de Lisboa em 1970. Mais tarde, regressando a Cabo Verde, dedica-se à advocacia. Assim, dois temas se refletem em” O testamento de Sr. Napumoceno de Araújo”: a sua profissão e o sistema político e social em Cabo Verde nos anos da Guerra Colonial e pós -independência .


Sr. Napumoceno era um conceituado comerciante do Mindelo, com todas as suas peculiaridades e imagem distinta. Mas a leitura das centenas de páginas do seu testamento após a sua morte lançou «uma nova luz sobre a vida e a pessoa do ilustre extinto», chegando a atingir laivos de cómico.


Assistimos à crescente complexidade de um senhor insigne que era, antes de tudo, um homem, com as suas paixões, querelas, dúvidas e provas de força e contrariedades. Paralelamente, através da imagem de marca da obra que é a sua escrita humorística, denotamos a tal crítica à sociedade cabo-verdiana.


Não estaria a mentir se dissesse que houve partes que me fizeram rir, relembrando-me a escrita de Machado de Assis. Germano de Almeida usa o Sr. Napumoceno inclusive para ilustrar a atitude contraditória e hipócrita dos ricos perante os pobres “(…) da barbárie que se passava lá fora, das pessoas que eram espancadas, das provocações que faziam à tropa colonial, das paredes pichadas e dos carros incendiados, ele deleitava-se na evocação dos três meses passados no estrangeiro e recriava a semana passada em Paris…”


O fim da obra traduz uma visão amiga e até decadente do ser humano, levando-nos a questionar em que ditames somos definidos: por aquilo que fizemos na vida, pela imagem que damos aos outros, pelo humano que somos interiormente ou pelo ser que somos na doença/ morte.


Para quem quer ler uma obra simples, contextualizada numa época a que os nossos pais assistiram, além de querer dar umas boas gargalhadas com cada situação, esta é uma boa recomendação. É uma prova da qualidade da literatura lusófona. Germano Almeida ganhou o Prémio Camões em 2018. 🇨🇻 🇵🇹

[Jeremy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I ended up reading this book semi-randomly. A pen pal sent it to me unsolicited. She read this novel set in the island nation of Cabo Verde, and when we was done with it, mailed her copy to me just because she thought I was the one person she knew who would at least know where the country is. Which is true! I could find it on a map and knew that it is Portuguese speaking. But before I read this book, I knew almost nothing else.

Story-wise the book was just okay. It started out good but over time I realized I never really cared about any of the characters, least of all Sr. Napumoceno, who sits in the center of the book.

What I did like was the glimpse into Cabo Verdean culture. I ended up learning a lot about the place, some from the book itself, but mostly from a bunch of fun wikipedia rabbit holes a stray reference would send me down. That alone made it worth it.

[Inês Lopes · Rating 3 out of 5]

foi claramente um livro que só me fez sentido por estar a visitar o país. ler um autor cabo-verdiano enquanto conheço praia foi uma experiência interessante.

olho para o Sr. Napumoceno como o average cabo-verdiano. apesar de ser uma história que toca em alguns temas polémicos, gostei da leveza de germano almeida e do seu humor.

[Marcello Stella · Rating 4 out of 5]

O livro é uma narrativa bastante surpreendente e contra intuitiva sobre a vida de um comerciante e a leitura de seu testamento. Se passando em Cabo Verde mostra de maneira sofisticada todas as contradições existentes entre população local e os colonizadores.

[Wayne Jordaan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great writing in which the testament in the story is not just a list of assets and bequeathals, but actually serves as the autobiography of the deceased. What I found interesting is the referrals to Portugal (Lisbon), but hardly any to the African continent.

[Ines Ribeiro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inspirada pela viagem decidi ler um livro de um autor contemporâneo cabo-verdiano. Agradável surpresa na escrita fluida e original de Germano Almeida. Conta a história dum senhor rico de São Vicente e de como quer deixar o seu testamento.

[Lolilu]

el testamento del señor napumoceno de silva araujo
COMPRAR

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was interesting to me in that it took place in a location with which I was unfamiliar, the Republic of Cape Verde, and it was a style of writing that I had not really read before. The first thing I had to do was to find out something about Cape Verde.

The Republic of Cape Verde is a group of 10 small islands in the central Atlantic Ocean about 350 miles off the coast of Western Africa. The islands are volcanic in origin. A few of them are fairly flat, and others are rocky with some vegetation, but in general they tend to be dry and not very verdant. The native language is Portuguese, and this book was originally written in that language and translated into quite a few other languages prior to being available in English.

The islands were uninhabited when discovered by the Portuguese in the 1400's and became central to the African slave trade. The islands were also popular with pirates and were visited by Charles Darwin in 1832. I wonder if he found any interesting species there, as the islands are so isolated from any other mainland. The islands have few natural resources, but overall the literacy rate is high, the economy and politics are stable. Tourism is a main industry. About 500,000 people, mostly of creole ethnicity, live among these islands today.

This story was not the most scintillating, but I enjoyed it while still wishing (just a bit) that I could finish it and get on to something else. But I learned so many things along the way, like where the Cape Verde islands are, and even what the word "creole" really means.

A creole language is a stable, full-fledged language that originated from a pidgin. So a Portuguese-based creole is based on Portuguese language originally, but has morphed over time to become a stable language of its own. Creole is also a word that describes the people living in a place like Cape Verde -- they are of Portuguese descent but were born and raised in the colony. I did not realize that creole had such a broad meaning. I had never heard the term applied to anyone but the Louisiana creole, but there are creole people and creole languages all over the world. The languages of Haiti, Mauritius, the Seychelles, Barbados. Liberia, and Papua New Guinea are all considered to be creole.

The story is humorous but also a little sad. Sr. Napumoceno did not have as fulfilling a life as he could have, and never was able to find a wife. I think he was not craving children, but he did think a great deal about getting married. I found him to be an odd duck, a person who spent much time thinking but little time sharing his thoughts with others or developing close relationships. Much of this comes out in his lengthy last will and testament.