August Notebook

Gloria, a teenager, tells us about her family and its problems. Her father, a well-known psychiatrist, divorced her mother and married a much younger and rather snobbish woman. Her mother, Luísa, is a History teacher who has been writing a master's thesis on Queen Maria II for a long time and is unable to finish it. At the same time, a publisher friend asks her to write a romance novel, which she does, stopping whenever she herself falls in love. Gloria includes her mother's romance novel (which turns out not to be a romance after all...) in her "August Notebook." "August Notebook" is a remarkably written novel for young adults (from 13 years old) that, once started, cannot be put down. Although the book is full of humour and funny dialogues, it is also a portrait of the lifestyles of the lower and middle bourgeoisie of Lisbon in the 90s.