The Crossing: A Story of East Timor

#483
Title: The Crossing: A Story of East Timor
Author: Luís Cardoso
Translator: Margaret Jull Costa
Introduction: Jill Jolliffe
Publisher: Granta Books
Year: 2000
Country: Timor-Leste
173 pages

Despite an explanatory introduction, I found this somewhat hard to follow. Cardoso's language is at times lyrical and nuanced, but the narrative slid around a bit and I'd suddenly find myself reading about a new topic without realizing that the focus had shifted. Cardoso's tone is dreamy and somewhat trance-inducing. While ostensibly a memoir of Cardoso's childhood, there are many points of foreshadowing of the declaration of independence and subsequent invasion by Indonesia. I missed most of these until I read a book on East Timor.