Los armarios vacíos

How to start over after a loss? And the disappointment? How to recompose the broken identity, the stifled hopes and desires, prescribed, linked to another, to another existence? In her life, Dora Rosário has to confront these questions radically on two occasions. This is her story, but not only: thanks to the dazzling virtuosity of Maria Judite de Carvalho, to her great precision, simplicity and restraint, we access universal intimacy, the timeless consciousness of so many women, familiar, close, but almost faded and neglected. A story that comes to us after the recovery of this imposing writer whose recent publication in English has caused a wave of recognition in the United States. For ten years, Dora mourns the death of her husband. Dora, the widow of eternal mourning; Dora, whose time passes in the shadows; Dora, devoted guardian of the memory of her husband. And also: Dora, on the threshold of poverty, because when Duarte died he left her and Lisa, their daughter, destitute, forced to depend on friends and Doña Ana -the indomitable and eccentric mother-in-law who gave us will procure more than one laugh-, until finally, disoriented and without any experience, she finds her first job. In this environment, fortunately, Lisa seems to develop into a stylish, witty and completely carefree teenager. On the night of her seventeenth birthday party, however, Doña Ana will reveal to her daughter-in-law a devastating secret about Duarte that will forever transform her lives.