Requiem for a villain

Requiem for a Villain is the greatest success of the novel by the Portuguese writer Júlio Moreira , published in 1993 . The original title is A Barragem ( The Dam ). It deals with the military dictatorship in Portugal and the situation afterwards and is characterized by a very original narrative style.

action

The first-person narrator (professional journalist or similar) receives anonymous calls, with the caller hanging up immediately after picking up the phone. A little later he also receives anonymous letters, the contents of which indicate that it is a former good friend of the narrator who suddenly disappeared in a demonstration organized by the authorities for the dictator and who has been accepted since then had that he was no longer alive. The narrator now also lives with the wife of his supposedly dead friend.

Later letters reveal that this friend was arrested by the secret police because, as a well-known opposition member , he dared to go too close to the platform on which the dictator was standing. The friend was tortured and threatened with death if he did not leave the city within a few hours. A mutual acquaintance, a dealer and smuggler, helped him make a fresh start in a small town in the hinterland.

The friend stayed there even after the overthrow, partly out of convenience, but also out of fear of the chaotic conditions after the revolution, which many used to take revenge on earlier tormentors or simply to settle old scores. The dealer falls victim to such an action.

The narrator makes new and old acquaintances. Among other things, he takes part in gatherings of the movement of the fallen , i.e. the poor without rights. These help him to visit the city in which the old friend lived. This city is doomed because a dam is to be built and the city will be submerged in the waters of a new lake. Most of the people have already been relocated and the friend will soon have to leave town too.

Although there is no meeting with the old friend, the narrator's partner disappears with him, also without leaving any message.