Night Train to Lisbon by Pascal Mercier Barbara Harshav

Author:Pascal Mercier, Barbara Harshav [MERCIER, PASCAL]
Format: epub
Tags: Literature
ISBN: 9781848873179
Publisher: Atlantic Books
Published: 2010-01-08T05:00:00+00:00

23

Natalie Rubin had called three times. Gregorius called back. The dictionary and the Portuguese grammar had been no problem at all, she said. ‘You’ll love this grammer book! Like a law book and heaps of lists with exceptions, the man is nuts about exceptions. Like you, sorry.’

The history of Portugal had been harder; there were several and she had decided on the most condensed. All these books were now on the way to him. The Persian grammar he had mentioned was still in print and Haupt could get it by the middle of next week. The history of the Portuguese Resistance, on the other hand – that was a real challenge. The library had been closed when she got there but she would return on Monday. At Haupt, they had advised her to enquire in the department of Romance literature and she knew who to ask for.

Gregorius was frightened by her enthusiasm, even though he had seen it coming. She would prefer to come to Lisbon and help him with his research, he heard her say.

Gregorius woke up in the middle of the night and wasn’t sure she had really said this, or whether he had dreamed it. Cool, Kägi and Lucien von Graffenried had said all the time he was playing chess against Pedro, the man from Jura, who pushed his pieces over the board with his forehead and banged his head furiously on the table when Gregorius outfoxed him. To play against Natalie had been strange and weird, for she played without pieces and without light. ‘I know Portuguese and could assist you!’ she said. He tried to answer her in Portuguese and felt as if he were taking an exam when the words didn’t come. Minha Senhora, he kept repeating, Minha Senhora, and then he didn’t know how to continue.

He called Doxiades. No, he hadn’t woken him up, said the Greek, he was having trouble sleeping again. And not only with sleep.

Gregorius had never heard such an admission from him, and he was scared. What was the problem? he asked.

‘Oh, nothing,’ said the Greek. ‘I’m just tired. I’m making mistakes in my practice. I’d like to stop working.’

Stop? Doxiades stop? Then what?

‘Go to Lisbon, for example,’ he laughed.

Gregorius told him about Pedro, his receding forehead and the epileptic look. Doxiades remembered the man from Jura.

‘After that, you played miserably for a while,’ he said. ‘For you.’

It was already light when Gregorius fell asleep again. When he woke up two hours later, a cloudless sky arched over Lisbon and people were walking around without coats. He decided to take the ferry over to Cacilhas to visit João Eça.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.