It is the first novel by poet Eduardo Pitta depicting a hidden Portugal in the closet, or maybe not.
It is a book that has a very fluid narrative, you read it in a heartbeat, has a burning nerve writing that feeds the reader's interest until the last page, it could even be a theater play. Forbidden City is the picture of a certain privileged Portugal hidden by social conventions, which in the end, is intolerant, but pretends it is not. The author, Eduardo Pitta is the first Portuguese writer to address homosexuality clearly and shamelessly, and do not deduct dear reader that I intend to point out a potential graphic description of what can be termed as the gay community, none of that, it is a book that covers the life of an homosexual within a traditional family. The metaphors are lean, which pleased me particularly in this reading, although the construction of characters is somewhat superficial. It is the vision of a very particular world, through a narrative that takes us to a privileged universe, unknown for most of the Portuguese. Rarely a Portuguese author writes about this issue of homosexuality as openly and candid as he does and that makes reading attractive. It is not controversial, it is not shameless in its language and it's just a nice book. Happy reading!
