Alves Redol is best known for the works of prose he wrote during the neorealist literary period of Portuguese literature. He also published short stories, children's literature, theatrical pieces, and several studies on the social injustices of everyday life in the Ribatejo and Alentejo regions of Portugal. Works of both Italian and Brazilian literature inspired Redol in his writing. He especially admired Jorge Amado, Graciliano Ramos, Rachel de Queirós, and José Lins do Rego, novelists of northeastern Brazil who were known for their objective observation of reality and a deep concern for the social problems of their country. Documenting in prose such problems in his own country, Redol depicts the enslaving labor that connects the common man to the land on which he works. He narrates in detail how physical work exhausts the laborer's energy and well-being yet does not enable him to better his...