Goodreads Monday is a weekly meme started by @Lauren’s Page Turners but is currently hosted by Emily @ Budget Tales Book Blog. This meme is quite easy to follow – just randomly pick a book from your to-be-read list and explain why you want to read it. It is that simple.

This week’s book:

The Inquisitors’ Manual by António Lobo Antunes

Blurb from Goodreads

Senhor Francisco, a once powerful state minister and a personal friend of the Portuguese dictator Salazar, is incapacitated by a stroke. As he lies dying in a Lisbon nursing home he reviews his life and his loves. The emotional turmoil enveloping Francisco’s family finally catches up with him when the Carnation Revolution severs the dictatorship and the old regime tumbles. Beset by paranoia, Senhor Francisco remains a large but empty shadow of his former self. An international best-seller and the novel that established Antunes’s reputation in Europe, The Inquisitors’ Manual is a rewarding and stunning piece of art that shows the damage tyranny does to each layer of society.

Why I Want To Read It

Happy Monday, everyone! I hope you all had a restful weekend. I hope you were able to recuperate and prepare for the workweek ahead. I know. Nearly everyone loathes Mondays; I am among those who loathe Mondays. Here in the Philippines, the first day of the week is still damp. It has been raining intermittently, although the sun has finally taken a peek. In the previous week, the sun was nowhere to be seen as low-pressure areas and the monsoon had battered the northern section of the country, including the National Capital Region. I hope that the rains will eventually relent. I also hope everyone here in the Philippines is safe and dry. To those who are in other parts of the world, I hope that you are doing well. For those of us who have to report to work despite the inclement weather, I hope you get home safely.

Further, I hope everyone is starting or has started the workweek on a high note. I hope everyone makes it through – or survives – the workweek. I hope that the weekend equipped everyone for the tedious week ahead. I hope everyone makes significant progress toward their goals. I wish everyone a great week ahead. More importantly, I hope everyone is doing well, in mind, body, and spirit, not only this week but for the rest of the year. Time does fly fast. Just like that, we are about to wave goodbye to July. August, the fabled ghost month, is just over the horizon. Anyway, as 2025 moves forward, I hope everyone is showered with blessings, positivity, healing, and growth. I hope good news and kindness will come knocking on everyone’s doors in the coming months. I wish success and blessings for everyone.

Reading-wise, I am on the right track with my goals. I am well ahead of my target of reading at least 100 books. However, I have been lagging behind in my reading challenges. Ticking off books from these reading challenges will be my priority in the second half of the year. I am currently reading Heimito Von Doderer’s The Strudlhof Steps, one of the books I listed on my 2025 Top 25 Reading List. The list is literally riddled with works of European literature, where I am – reading-wise – right now. As such, I have been featuring works of European writers in this weekly update/ This week, I am featuring António Lobo Antunes’ The Inquisitor’s Manual. I would not have come across the book had I not searched for recommended works of Portuguese literature.

The Inquisitor’s Manual was recommended as a book one must read when exploring Portuguese literature. It was one of several Portuguese works that piqued my interest. For one, I had never encountered António Lobo Antunes before, nor have I read any of his works. I just learned that Lobo Antunes was born to an accomplished family of scientists, academicians, and lawyers. The oldest of six sons, Lobo Antunes carved his own niche in literature, producing several compelling reads that made him a shoo-in for the Nobel Prize in Literature. He has also received several accolades such as the Austrian State Prize, the Ovid Prize, the Jerusalem Prize, the Camões Prize, and the Juan Rulfo Prize.

However, I have yet to read one of his works and The Inquisitor’s Manual looks like a good primer. Several literary pundits also consider the book as the work that catapulted the Portuguese writer to global acclaim. Originally published in 1996 as  O Manual dos Inquisidores, the novel promises to be a vivid portrait of the brutalities of the António de Oliveira Salazar dictatorship, a section of modern history I only came across in the works of Lobo Antunes’ countryman, José Saramago. There is so much to look forward to in the novel and I can’t wait to acquire a copy of it. How about you, fellow reader? How was your Monday? What books have you added to your reading list? Do drop it in the comment box. For now, happy Monday and, as always, happy reading!