"Finally, it must be said that raw passion, which is experienced without theories, but with palpitations, gives this string fable its backbone. And lucid madness, so often summoned to circumscribe the whirlwind that Maria Adelaide Coelho da Cunha has unleashed, stands as the axis of a conjecture that seeks the disciplining frame. Who can hesitate to conclude that passion, and nothing else, is the definitive torch for the progress of souls and its pertinent justification?" From the Foreword by Mário Cláudio

Agustina Bessa-Luís was born in Vila Meã, Amarante, on October 15, 1922. Her childhood and adolescence were spent in this region, whose ambience will strongly mark the writer's work. She made her debut as a novelist in 1948, with the novel Mundo Fechado (Closed World), and since then she has maintained an unusual rate of publication in Portuguese literature, with more than half a hundred works.

She has represented Portuguese literature at numerous colloquiums and international meetings and has given lectures at universities all over the world.