Alves & Co and Other Stories — Eca de Queiros / Jose Maria Eca De Queiros

In this volume, comprising one short novel and six short stories, the reader is introduced to a dazzling variety of worlds and characters: a deceived husband who finds that jealousy is not the answer, a lovelorn Greek poet-turned-waiter working in a Charing Cross hotel, a saintly young woman soured by love, a follower of St Francis who learns that an entire life of virtue can be besmirched by one cruel act, Adam in Paradise pondering the pros and cons of dominion over the earth, Jesus healing a child, and a loyal nursemaid forced to make a terrible choice. An opera, The Yellow Sofa, by Julian Philips based on Alves & Co was performed for the first time at Glyndbourne in 2009. 'Dedalus, which has done more than any publisher to bring Eca's work to the attention of the English-speaking world, continues the project with Alves & Co, also known as The Yellow Sofa, a comic novella about infidelity discovered in a trunk after the author's death, and half a dozen short stories published in his lifetime, all rendered into English in a new translation by Margaret Jull Costa.' Keith Richmond in Tribune