Crime of Father Amaro

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Amaro Vieira, son of servants and orphaned at six, is brought up by his parents' employer, the Marquesa de Alegros. He is well treated and happy, but the Marquesa has decided that Amaro will enter the priesthood, the solution for many of Portugal's orphans. It is a profession for which he has no real enthusiasm but he sees no choice but to accept it. In the seminary he proves a competent pupil but feels agonized that life is passing him by. Even so, once a priest, all goes well until he is appointed to the country town of Lieria. Here he encounters provincial hypocrisy and deceit at its most extreme, and his relationships with his canon, the venal Dias, and the beautiful, young and willing Amelia ensure the collapse of his fragile moral fibre and expose in him a inner frailty that leads to tragedy. Written between 1875 and 1879 and revised several times, this is the work of one of Portugal's most respected 19th-century writers. Considered scandalous at the time, it portrays the clergy as manipulative and self-seeking and the secular world as no better. Lieria is full of people prepared to give advice that they have no intention of taking themselves and the priests are quite happy to use the populace's fear of eternal damnation to open a few doors or grease a few palms. The novel retains its power to disturb in the way in which the writer conveys each character's self-justification. Modern in its simplicity, it shows the way that homogeneity of purpose is achieved through self-deceit or the blaming of others, This process is depicted without overt judgement or moralising, making it finally a depressing norm in Queiroz's world. Written with restraint yet often deeply lyrical, this is a welcome addition to the range of classic novels available in English translation. (Kirkus UK)