** 2018/02/15: This page is still evolving, so check back for important updates (like reviews!), coming soon **
What better way to prepare for your trip than by reading books about Portugal?
I love read. One of my favorite ways to learn about a place I’m going to visit is by reading good books about things that happened there; it gives me a different, more emotional, connection to the things I see once I arrive.
But since I’ve moved to Lisbon, I don’t need to travel to find new reading material, because there are so many great books about Portugal.
So, what to read before you come?
We have all kinds of suggestions, both fiction and non-fiction. We have a History of Portugal, in Books, a special list Just for Kids, a list of Non-Fiction, a list of Books by Portuguese Authors, and last but not least, a Complete List by Author’s Last Name.
Without further ado, I give you…
Books about Portugal, our collection:
In pictures
A History of Portugal, in Books
Early History
- History of the Siege of Lisbon, by José Saramago
- The First Global Village, by Martin Page
- The Conquest of Lisbon, by Charles Wendell David
Voyages of Discovery; Maritime Power (1450-1580)
The Lusiads (1572)
The Tragic History of the Sea
Prince Henry the Navigator
Unknown Seas: how Vasco da Gama opened the East
Over the Edge of the World: Ferdinand Magaellan
The Portuguese Empire, 1415-1808: A world on the move
1500’s, including the Inquisition
The Long Journey of Gracia Mendes
The Last Kabbalist in Lisbon
Hebrews of the Portuguese Nation: conversos
Lisbon in the Renaissance
Portuguese Slave Trade (1450’s-1836)
Fifty Days on Board a Slave Vessel
Hunting Midnight
Great Lisbon Earthquake (1755)
The Last Day
Ebook: Uses of the Lisbon Earthquake in European Thought
1600’s-1800’s, including Naploeanic invasions
Sonnets of the Portuguese
Letters from Portugal, Spain and France 1812-1814
The Lines of Torres Vedras: The Cornerstone of Wellington’s
Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon
Love Letters from a Portuguese Nun (1678)
Salazar/Caetano Dictatorship, including World War II (1926-1974)
Night Train to Lisbon
A Small Death in Lisbon
A Good Man in Evil Times: Aristides de Sousa Mendes
The Night in Lisbon
1900-present
The Last Old Place
A Cottage in Portugal
Here is Where We Meet
MOVIE: The Lisbon Story
Blindness
Journey through Portugal
Lisbon – What the Tourist Should See
The Book of Disquiet
Requiem: A Hallucination
Under the Bright Wings
Our Lady of Fatima
Just for Kids
Non-Fiction
Books by Portuguese Authors
Complete List by Author’s Last Name
…
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