So many people, Mariano Unspoken words

This collection of short stories and novellas by Maria Judite de Carvalho (1921–1998), entitled So Many People, Mariana / The Unspoken Words, is the first part of a four-volume complete works edition (Obras completas). The author's debut, the 1959 novella So Many People, Mariana, was highly acclaimed by critics. Prose writer and journalist Maria Judite de Carvalho began writing during a period of oppression, when Portugal was ruled by the ultra-right-wing authoritarian regime of António de Oliveira Salazar. She remains one of the exceptional voices in Portuguese prose; until the Carnation Revolution in 1974, cultural expression by women in the country was sporadic. As the wife of the influential dissident and equally important literary figure Urbano Tavares Rodrigues, she was often under pressure from the secret police, and the couple spent several years in exile in France and Belgium.

The main common denominator of Maria Judite de Carvalho's prose could be a dense, suffocating silence, resulting from misunderstanding between men and women, as well as intergenerational incomprehension. The protagonists are primarily women who exude restlessness, depression, negativity, and self-denial. The desire to change an uncomfortable world is particularly evident in the novella So Many People, Mariana. A true gem is the 1961 novella The Unspoken Words, written in a very sparse style, which was awarded the prestigious Portuguese Camilo Castelo Branco Grand Prize for a Short Story (Grande Prémio do Conto Camilo Castelo Branco) in the same year.