The Transmutation of Fernando Pessoa’s Remains
project details
My very first encounter with The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa would lead to a love affair with Portugal’s Shakespeare that has only grown over the years. Pessoa would find his way into The Book of Embers as an alchemist obsessively trying to distill the word for the universe. Pessoa would also find his way to a chance encounter, across the holographic plenum of time and space, in an unforgettable convergence of uncanny plotlines in my life and the life of a stranger I would soon call my long-lost literary twin.
In December 2025, I would receive an unusual email from the Spanish writer Miguel Ángel Manzanas. The rest of the story is pure magic best experienced in one of two ways. Buffy Barfoot chronicled the event in her podcast, Things That Will Help, in an episode entitled Divine Order Will Help. Miguel Ángel Manzanas also wrote about his first-hand experience in an article in Neuva Tribuna. An English translation of his article can be found here.
The breadcrumb trail referenced in both Miguel’s article and Buffy’s podcast starts here, in an old piece of writing, in which the spell Pessoa cast on me is all-consuming.