“A masterpiece of compression. A political history of 1930s Portugal, a love story between a man and his dead wife, a gloriously successful formal experiment, and an irresistible thriller — and it can be read with enormous pleasure in a single afternoon.” — Mohsin Hamid “Pereira Maintains is small only in size. Its themes are great ones — courage, betrayal, fidelity, love, corruption; and its treatment of them is subtle, skilful, and clear. It’s so clear, in fact, that you can see a very long way down, into the heart of a flawed but valiant human being, into the sickness of a nation, into the depths of political evil. It’s the most impressive novel I’ve read for years, and one of the very few that feels truly necessary.” — Philip Pullman “Close to being a perfect novel — brief, tragic, inspiring” — John Carey, Chairman of the International Man Booker 2002 “Pereira is a marvelously complex creation. One of the most intriguing and appealing character studies in recent European fiction.” — Kirkus Reviews In the sweltering summer of 1938 in Portugal, a country under the fascist shadow of Spain, a mysterious young man arrives at the doorstep of Dr Pereira. So begins an unlikely alliance that will result in a devastating act of rebellion. This is Pereira’s testimony