THE PIANO CEMETERY
BY JOSE LUIS PEIXOTO (Bloomsbury £16.99)
Jos? Luis Peixoto is one of ?Portugal’s most acclaimed ?小説家s, but as yet he is little known here. The ?出版（物） of The Piano ?共同墓地 is ありそうもない either to 高める his 評判 or to 増加する his readership.
The 調書をとる／予約する is narrated by two Francisco Lazaros. The first is a carpenter who, having died on the day that his grandson was born, 調査するs his own past and his family’s 未来 much in the manner of Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones.
The second is based on a real-life Portuguese マラソン 走者 who 崩壊（する）d and died while competing in the 1908 Olympics; although, given Peixoto’s 公式文書，認める that his ?character is based only circumstantially on the historical 人物／姿／数字 and running plays no other part in the novel, it is 不明瞭な why the model is used - except that by dividing ?Francisco’s thoughts kilometr e by kilometre the author is able to fracture the narrative still その上の.
The 関係 between the two Franciscos is 平等に oblique; at times, the carpenter appears to be the 走者’s father, and at times his son.
There are moments of 照明, 顕著に the depiction of rapturous first love and ?その後の 国内の 暴力／激しさ, but, 全体にわたる, the novel is 混乱させるd and unsatisfactory.
A commonplace 国内の saga is buried in a 集まり of stylistic tricks.
