Rui Tavares

In this monthly series, a writer talks about Lisbon from the perspective of their own work. Lisbon, the timeless city, a stage for love and crossed paths which holds stories from recent and more remote times hidden among its old houses and streets. Secrets of a city that are revealed in the words of those who describe it. In this conversation with Rui Tavares, we start with one of his books, A Short Book on the Great Earthquake.

About the author

Rui Tavares was born in Lisbon in 1972 and spent most of his childhood in Arrifana, a village in the Ribatejo region. He completed a degree in History and Art History from Universidade Nova de Lisboa and holds a PhD in History from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris. He is an associate researcher at the Centre for International Studies at ISCTE/IUL and is a member of the Philosophy Institute at Universidade Nova de Lisboa.

A politician, historian, essayist and writer, he has published several books, mainly non-fiction, on historical or political themes, including O Pequeno Livro do Grande Terramoto (2005, published in English in 2020 with the title A Short Book on the Great Earthquake), A Ironia do Projeto Europeu (2012), Esquerda e Direita: Guia Histórico para o Século XXI (2015), O Censor Iluminado (2018), the collections Portugal, uma restrospectiva (4 volumes, 2022) and Agora, agora e mais agora: seis memórias do último milénio (7 volumes, 2023) — which originally appeared in podcast format, in collaboration with the newspaper Público.