Patrícia Portela launches novel in dialogue with a Goya painting.

17 May 2026

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Multidisciplinary artist Patricia Portela returns to the book world with "Today, May 3rd," a novel inspired by Francisco José de Goya's painting "The Executions of May 3rd, 1808." It's a story about war seen from a distance, horror transformed into news, and a Europe that remains, to this day, trapped in a time of violence.

"Living through a war from a distance is like looking at this painting. It's being there without being inside, it's being outside without being here. I live from a distance. The war from a distance. The horror from a distance. Death from a distance. Fear from a distance. Disaster from a distance. It's all just news."

The book, published by Editorial Caminho, will be presented on May 17th at KEF, with the presence of the author, her editor, Zeferino Coelho, historian Raquel Varela, and Spanish journalist Alfonso Armada.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Patrícia Portela is the author of performances and literary works. She studied scenography, visual arts, film, and contemporary dance. She holds a master's degree in philosophy from the University of Leuven in Belgium. She has worked as a costume and set designer for several independent companies, such as Teatro da Garagem, Teatro Meridional, and Projecto Teatral. She has designed costumes and set pieces for several short films by Luís Alvarães, Miguel Gomes, and Fátima Ribeiro. She was artistic director of Teatro Viriato (2020-2022) and Rua das Gaivotas 6 (2023-2024), columnist for JL from 2017 to 2025, and for Antena 1 in 2019. She is recognized "for the peculiarity of her work" and has received several awards for it, including the Madalena Azeredo de Perdigão/FCG Prize for the shows "Flatland I" (2004) and "Wasteband" (honorable mention in 2003), was a finalist for the First Sonae/MNACC Multimedia Prize in 2015 with the installation "Parasomnia," and was a finalist for the APE Grand Novel and Short Story Prize in 2013 with Banquete and the Correntes d'Escritas Prize in 2022. She won the Ciranda Prize in 2022 with Hífen, a novel by Miguel Real, from JL considered it "historic".

Zeferino Coelho completed his secondary education in Guimarães and obtained a degree in Philosophy from the University of Porto. In 1969, he began working at Editorial Inova, where he remained until the end of 1971. He joined Editorial Caminho in early 1977 as an editor, where he remains to this day. He was the editor of Nobel laureate José Saramago and seven winners of the Camões Prize from Cape Verde, Mozambique, Angola, and Portugal: Arménio Vieira and Germano de Almeida, José Craveirinha and Mia Couto, Luandino Vieira, José Saramago, and Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen. Of these authors, only one has not yet been published in German: the Mozambican poet José Craveirinha. In 2019, he received the Grand Officer of the Order of Prince Henry the Navigator decoration from the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.

Raquel Varela is a historian, university professor, and researcher. She is the author of *The History of the PCP in the Carnation Revolution* (2011), *History of the People in the Portuguese Revolution* (2014), *A Brief History of Europe* (2018), and *A Brief History of Portugal* (2023). She specializes in the history of the 25th of April Revolution and also in the history of revolutions in the 20th century.

Alfonso Armada holds degrees in Journalism from the Complutense University of Madrid and in Acting from the Royal Higher School of Dramatic Art. In 2012, he joined Reporters Without Borders as vice-president. He worked for 14 years at the newspaper *El País*, five of which as a correspondent in Africa. Since 1999 he has collaborated with ABC, where he has held the following positions: correspondent in New York (1999-2005), journalistic director of Master ABC/UCM (2009-2015), director of the ABC Cultural supplement (2015-2017) and cultural correspondent. He covered the siege of Sarajevo, the Rwandan genocide and the attack on the Twin Towers. He has published, among others, the books Cuadernos Africanos; España, de sol a sol; El rumor de la frontera (journey along the border between the United States and Mexico); Nueva York, el deseo y la quimera; Diccionario de Nueva York; Sarajevo. Diarios de la guerra de Bosnia; El Celta no tiene la culpa, in addition to theatrical works (La edad de oro de los perros / No hay esperanza para los malditos) and poetry in Galician (Pita velenosa, Porta de dous perigos and TSC, Diario da noite) and in Spanish (Las tempestades, Cuaderno de Tánger and Cuaderno ruso).

Service

“Today, May 3rd”, by Patrícia Portela
May 17th, at 6:30 PM
KEF - Rua de Santa Catarina, 9, ground floor, Lisbon
Subject to capacity