Manuel da Fonseca is one of the most important Portuguese writers of the period known as neorealism, which dominated Portuguese literature from 1940 to 1974. The neorealists were deeply concerned with social and political issues from a leftist point of view. Writers such as Fonseca, Alves Redol, Soeiro Pereira Gomes, Fernando Namora, and José Cardoso Pires engaged in a literary project opposed to that developed by José Régio and his group, who founded Presença magazine (published from 1927 until 1940). Régio's group paid more attention to psychological and metaphysical questions. The neorealists considered literature primarily as a political weapon to be used against the fascist dictatorship in Portugal (1928-1974), led by António de Oliveira Salazar until 1968, then by Marcelo Caetano.

Manuel Lopes da Fonseca was born in Santiago do Cacém, Baixo Alentejo, on 15 October 1911. His parents were Carlos Augusto da...