Since José Cardoso Pires's debut as a fiction writer in 1949, political engagement and the declared objectives of critical and analytical independence were distinctive characteristics of his work. He was an extreme-left activist, and three historical developments aid in understanding the choice for this political position: the dictatorial regime of António de Oliveira Salazar and his successor, Marcelo Caetano, in Portugal (1926-1974); the outbreak of World War II (1939-1945); and the appearance of neorealism (1940), inspired by American (John Steinbeck, Sinclair Lewis, Ernest Hemingway) and Brazilian (Jorge Amado, José Lins do Rego, Graciliano Ramos) models. The development of Portuguese and European surrealism also had an impact on Pires's works. The author presents a thematically uniform body of writing that assumes a distinctive and personal style after the 1974 Revolução dos Cravos (Carnation Revolution), when the Portuguese dictatorial regime ended, allowing the novelist more freedom...