Selma Carvalho, author of Goan Pioneers of East Africa, meditates on feminist themes, toxic masculinity and the complexities of the Goan diaspora in Ivo de Figueiredo’s memoir, A Stranger at My Table:

“It’s impossible to do justice to the complexity of Figueiredo’s writing in a review. His lyrical prose is exquisite. […] What commitment can we Goans make to his story? Can we claim Figueiredo for ourselves? He has no inkling of what it means to be Goan. His only, fleeting, acquaintance with the community has been the Norwegian Goan Association in Oslo, where desultory meetings conducted by disinterested parties held little appeal for him. […] Maybe we are all just individuals with disparate stories, capable of dissolving and reconstituting, leaving homelands and finding new ones, setting sail from safe harbours and embracing unknown futures. And yet, are we really anything other than the sum total of our shared historical past? Can we ever deny that collective euphoria which transcends distance and binds us together? Figueiredo’s story is ours.”

The review appears in O Heraldo (“The Voice of Goa since 1900”), and the full review is available on the online literary journal Joao-Roque. Learn more about the book.