The True Actor

Fiction & Literature, Literary
Cover of the book The True Actor by Jacinto Lucas Pires, Dzanc Books
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Jacinto Lucas Pires ISBN: 9781941088050
Publisher: Dzanc Books Publication: July 19, 2015
Imprint: DISQUIET Language: English
Author: Jacinto Lucas Pires
ISBN: 9781941088050
Publisher: Dzanc Books
Publication: July 19, 2015
Imprint: DISQUIET
Language: English
The favored prostitute of Lisbon’s rich and powerful has been found dead amid austerity protests in Portugal, and down-on-his-luck actor Americo Abril, who has just won the role of a lifetime playing Paul Giamatti in the avant-garde film Being Paul Giamatti, is the prime suspect.

Abril seeks the real killer, and he grapples with what it means to be Paul Giamatti. Confounded by the role he plays in the film and the roles that he plays in real life-weary dad, blocked artist, henpecked husband, miserable lover, wanted man-Abril struggles to hold together himself, his family, and his country.

The True Actor, the English debut by award-winning Portuguese author Jacinto Lucas Pires, manages both a postmodern boondoggle and a touching story of identity and love and loss in austerity-era Portugal.


Jacinto Lucas Pires was born in Porto in 1974 and now lives in Lisbon. He is a writer, playwright, director, musician, and soccer aficionado. The True Actor won the 2013 Domingos da Silva Teixeira Distinguished Literature Award for the best book published in Portugal in the past two years. Pires won the prestigious Prémio Europa–David Mourão-Ferreira (Bari University, Italy/Instituto Camões, Portugal) in 2008. He plays with the band Os Quais. Several translations of his short prose recently appeared in an issue of The St. Petersburg Review translated by Jaime Braz and Dean Thomas Ellis.
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
The favored prostitute of Lisbon’s rich and powerful has been found dead amid austerity protests in Portugal, and down-on-his-luck actor Americo Abril, who has just won the role of a lifetime playing Paul Giamatti in the avant-garde film Being Paul Giamatti, is the prime suspect.

Abril seeks the real killer, and he grapples with what it means to be Paul Giamatti. Confounded by the role he plays in the film and the roles that he plays in real life-weary dad, blocked artist, henpecked husband, miserable lover, wanted man-Abril struggles to hold together himself, his family, and his country.

The True Actor, the English debut by award-winning Portuguese author Jacinto Lucas Pires, manages both a postmodern boondoggle and a touching story of identity and love and loss in austerity-era Portugal.


Jacinto Lucas Pires was born in Porto in 1974 and now lives in Lisbon. He is a writer, playwright, director, musician, and soccer aficionado. The True Actor won the 2013 Domingos da Silva Teixeira Distinguished Literature Award for the best book published in Portugal in the past two years. Pires won the prestigious Prémio Europa–David Mourão-Ferreira (Bari University, Italy/Instituto Camões, Portugal) in 2008. He plays with the band Os Quais. Several translations of his short prose recently appeared in an issue of The St. Petersburg Review translated by Jaime Braz and Dean Thomas Ellis.

More books from Dzanc Books

Cover of the book Could You Be With Her Now by Jacinto Lucas Pires
Cover of the book Babble by Jacinto Lucas Pires
Cover of the book Town Burning by Jacinto Lucas Pires
Cover of the book Between Wrecks by Jacinto Lucas Pires
Cover of the book Desperate Measures by Jacinto Lucas Pires
Cover of the book Festival for Three Thousand Women by Jacinto Lucas Pires
Cover of the book The High Walls of Jerusalam by Jacinto Lucas Pires
Cover of the book This Old Heart of Mine by Jacinto Lucas Pires
Cover of the book Honey in the Carcase by Jacinto Lucas Pires
Cover of the book Augusta Played by Jacinto Lucas Pires
Cover of the book Sam Bass by Jacinto Lucas Pires
Cover of the book Moral Tale and Other Moral Tales, A by Jacinto Lucas Pires
Cover of the book Asunder by Jacinto Lucas Pires
Cover of the book The Bride Wore Crimson and Other Stories by Jacinto Lucas Pires
Cover of the book Into Thin Air by Jacinto Lucas Pires
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy