Between the end of the world and “I was here”: A conversation with Dulce Maria Cardoso
On March 6, the 8th session of the EntreLinhas Reading Club took place under the theme “Are you there? Reading as if it was the end of the world”, at the School of Communication and Media Studies (ESCS-IPL). The session was organized by the UNESCO Chair of Communication, Media and Information Literacy and Citizenship and brought together around 25 participants.
The guest was Dulce Maria Cardoso, an award-winning author of books such as The Return (O Retorno) and Eliete, in a conversation moderated by Isabel Lucas, teacher at ESCS, journalist, and also writer.
Inspired by the guest’s personal and literary experience, the session offered a reflection on the transformative power of reading.
Recalling episodes from her childhood in Angola during the decolonization period, Dulce Maria Cardoso began by evoking a phrase often used by her mother, “this looks like the end of the world,” echoing the session’s subtheme – “reading as if it was the end of the world.” She noted that even in contexts of uncertainty and conflict, human beings respond with a “compulsion for life”: “You get used to everything. And you respond with life, with celebrations before and after curfew.” The feeling, the writer added, is that “it’s now or never.”
From these memories, the discussion moved toward a broader reflection on reading as a vital and deeply human act.
Dulce Maria Cardoso emphasized that “there is a before and an after reading a book” and described reading as her “superpower,” reinforcing the role of books in shaping (her) identity.
“I realized that I wanted to spend my life telling stories,” she shared, recalling how she used to invent stories about her school days because she “found it boring to always say the same thing.” When she later moved to Trás-os-Montes, she again turned to imagination to make a “very difficult” daily life more bearable. On her walks to the village fountain, Dulce Maria Cardoso explained, she would turn the people she encountered into fictional characters and build stories about them in her imagination.
Regarding her own books, the author spoke about the difficulty of seeing her stories as having a clear beginning and end. “All my novels begin as if they were already coming from somewhere, and end as if they continued,” she explained, highlighting the idea of continuity – of a story never fully finished – which she wishes to keep exploring.
Toward the end of the session, the meeting’s theme – “Are you there?” – was revisited when the guest referred to the final line of her book The Return – “I was here” – as a direct address to readers and an invitation to be fully present in each moment.
The session was free and open to the entire community. At the end, participants also had the opportunity to take home a book of their choice on loan, extending the reading experience beyond the event.
The next EntreLinhas session will take place on April 23, World Book and Copyright Day.
Find out more about EntreLinhas on the Chair’s website.
