Mindelo, Cabo Verde, March 12, 2025 (Lusa) - Cabo Verdean writer Germano Almeida, a Camões prize winner, told Lusa on Wednesday that he has left the Caminho publishing house, complaining of the "arrogance" of the Leya group's management in stopping the publication of his latest book with an "invention", without listening to him.
"There were two people to whom I sent the PDF and what Portuguese publishing group, Leya, said was that one of them had denounced the situation, saying they would take it to court. The two people deny it," said the author, about the file with "Crime nas Correntes d'Escritas", a book in "homage and jest" to the annual meeting of writers in Póvoa de Varzim.
"Aurelino [Costa] had already denied it and Tânia Ganho was confronted by [the weekly newspaper] Expresso and also denies having done this, so we have to conclude that it was an invention by Leya," he added.
"It's undoubtedly an act of arrogance, above all because I didn't have the opportunity to be heard to explain the reason for the book in the slightest and possibly make any changes that the people in question might demand," added Germano Almeida.
"It is a book of homage and fun, in no way did I intend to offend anyone," he said.
Germano Almeida announced that he will be publishing the book in Cabo Verde, through Ilhéu Editora, of which he is a partner together with his wife and Ana Cordeiro, and hopes that the launch will take place soon.
He doesn't intend to take any further action on the case, even when asked about the fact that he received the Camões Prize (in 2018): "Leya's management knows, if they didn't have consideration [for the award], I'm not going to be the one to demand that they do, it wouldn't make any sense."
As well as ‘Crime nas Correntes d'Escritas’, Ilhéu is preparing to publish another book in which Ana Cordeiro appears as an interviewer with Germano Almeida.
"The interview has grown immensely" and could give rise to "two volumes", the first of which has already been planned for the end of the year, but could take longer.
"I took advantage of the interview to tell stories about [the island of] Boa Vista", without it being “an autobiography”, he told Lusa.
It's a work that was born ‘out of the pleasure’ of ‘telling stories’ that Germano Almeida says he remembers ‘well’.
Leya told Lusa on Monday that it had decided to suspend publication of the book ‘Crime nas Correntes d'Escritas’, after being advised by lawyers, in the face of "threats of legal action" by people who feel "invaded and assaulted by the way they are treated".
The book tells a fictionalised story, in which the characters are real participants in the meeting of writers, under their own names, about the disappearance, allegedly by theft, of an original manuscript by Mário Zambujal.
The narrative centres on an investigation carried out by the novelist himself and the poet Aurelino Costa, a regular participant in the Correntes, to discover the alleged thief.
LFO/AYLS // AYLS
Lusa
