The Pleasure You Suffer: A Saudade Anthology

Saudade reportedly has no direct English translation; it’s a Portuguese word describing the nostalgic longing for something that may never return, or may not exist. This feeling can be strangely comforting; author Manuel de Mello calls it A pleasure you suffer, an ailment you enjoy. It permeates the music of Brazil, another nation steeped in slavery and sadness and the hope for a better life. Yet this heartsick yearning’s actually very familiar to those of us born and raised in North America; we often call it the blues. This saudade-themed anthology explores this fascinating emotional territory in exciting poems and stories from a range of new and up-and-coming authors-pieces that linger after the last page is turned.