BOOK PRESENTATION “THE MOST BEAUTIFUL CURSE”, by Rui Couceiro, by José Garrido

September 12 | 4:00 PM

Location: Municipal Library of Lagos Organization: CM Lagos Duration: 60 min Age group: M12

All activities at the Municipal Library are free to participate, but prior registration is mandatory up to 48 hours before the event through the phone 282 767 816, the Facebook page of the Library, or email biblioteca@cm-lagos.pt. Each initiative requires a minimum number of participants. If this is not reached, the activity may be canceled.

What can a nearly centenarian baroness from Tuscany, an old fisherman from Póvoa de Varzim, a former Brazilian minister, a gas station attendant from the Azores, a French socioeconomist living in São Tomé, a garbage truck driver from Bogotá, an Italian poet, a second-hand bookseller from Rabat, a former New Yorker inmate, and a German priest have in common? A deep and undeniable connection to books, which led them to dedicate their entire lives or a good part of them to this object of millennia. They and their love for books are the protagonists of Rui Couceiro's new book. After publishing the novels Baiôa sem Data para Morrer and Morro da Pena Ventosa, the author traveled the world to meet and tell stories that will captivate all those who, like him and the protagonists of A Mais Bela Maldição, love books and reading.

BIOGRAPHY: Rui Couceiro was born in Porto in 1984. He worked in the publishing industry for two decades, first in communications at Porto Editora and later as an editor at Bertrand, where he created and directed the Contraponto imprint for ten years, which stood out for publishing biographies written by novelists that became bestsellers and received critical acclaim. Currently, he is the curator of the literary and cultural event BABELL, promoted by the Lello Bookstore Foundation, with the support of the Porto City Hall, which, in its first edition in 2026, brought authors such as Margaret Atwood, Salman Rushdie, Olga Tokarczuk, László Krasznahorkai, Julian Barnes, Byung-Chul Han, Héctor Abad Faciolince, Javier Cercas, Conceição Evaristo, Milton Hatoum, and David Uclés to Portugal, to speak in front of audiences of thousands in the squares and streets of the city, earning the event great praise from the international press: "The new BABELL festival turns Porto into the world capital of literature," El Mundo; "Porto becomes the European capital of literature," ABC; "Porto: Europe’s new book capital?" France 24. He is a member of the Cultural Council of the Eça de Queiroz Foundation and collaborates with the magazine Visão. As an author, he published the novel Baiôa sem Data para Morrer in 2022, which was awarded the Manuel de Boaventura Literary Prize and was a finalist for the Portuguese Pen Club Prize. In 2024, he released a second novel, Morro da Pena Ventosa, which received similar recognition from readers and critics. In 2026, he published A Mais Bela Maldição, a collection of true stories of people passionate about books.

Free parking - The Centro Cultural de Lagos and the Biblioteca Municipal de Lagos offer free parking at the park by the Ribeirinha Front (Avenida dos Descobrimentos) for the audience of their shows/events. To receive this discount, users must present, at the park's reception, a stamp obtained at the ticket office of the Centro Cultural de Lagos or the entrance of the Biblioteca Municipal de Lagos. This offer only applies one hour before and up to one hour after each show/event.