Probably the most intriguing thing about this novel is the way the story is told. Rather than simply using a first person narrator the entire book, Dr Pereira’s testimony, is ‘read’ to us which is why, every now and then the reader inserts “Pereira maintains” into his reading. At its core it’s a political thriller set in Lisbon in 1938 but really what it is is a story of a man’s awakening to what’s going on around him. In many respects Pereira is a tubby Winston Smith.