The Bull Is Not Killed

John Walker is a professor of Spanish at Queen’s University.

Set mostly in the beautiful region of the Algarve, Sarah Dearing’s
first novel captures something of the atmosphere that prevailed in
Portugal in 1974, when the country was coming to grips with the outmoded
dictatorship of Caetano, successor to the old-time tyrant Salazar.

Luis, a young graduate and would-be writer, falls in love with Luisa, a
beautiful young gypsy. While the young lovers struggle in the face of
traditional prejudice and ignorance, English expatriates such as
Margaret Brown, a concerned animal-lover, and Harry Young, the pub
owner, become embroiled in land and business schemes involving the
locals. The forces of law and order are represented by Da Sousa, a
vindictive and crooked policeman (and member of the secret police) and
Montiega, an idealistic young soldier and one of the political
conspirators.

Dearing weaves in the past and the present by drawing on the Moorish
legends, the Romany tales, and the heroic history of Portugal as
epitomized by Camхes’s epic poem, The Lusiads, the inspiration for
the young officers of the Armed Forces Movement. This entertaining and
elegantly produced novel succeeds in evoking the spirit and desires of
the Portuguese people.