site.btaPortugal's Best-selling Author Rodrigues dos Santos: Books Save People Time, I Use Fiction to Decode Reality

Books save people time, best-selling Portuguese author Jose Rodrigues dos Santos told BTA on Tuesday. "By reading, we learn things while spending time having fun," he argued. BTA spoke to the renowned historical fiction novelist and journalist on the occasion of the Spring Book Fair at the National Palace of Culture.

“Literature interests me as a way to talk about real life through fictional stories,” added Rodrigues dos Santos, whose books have been published in millions of copies, translated into 20 languages and won numerous awards.

"We use books to pass the time while having fun, but we also learn things from them. I like books from which I learn new things – books that are fun and interesting, but also make me think - about myself, about our society, about our world, about life, about the universe... I think my books try to answer an enduring human question: why do we exist, what is the meaning of our existence? That is what I try to achieve with them," said the Portuguese author.

"Basically, what I do is use real things to tell stories – that is what I am interested in, actually. My novels end up being a bit of an essay in disguise [...] I was once at a book fair in Leipzig, Germany. I was presenting my book The Key of Solomon, which is about quantum physics. And finally, an engineer came up to me and said, "I have been an engineer for thirty years, I work with Schrodinger's equation every day, but I never understood it until I read your book." This is my work. I use fiction to decode reality. That is how we save time – we are spending time reading something entertaining, and we are saving [time] because we learn something about ourselves. That is my goal," he explained.

José Rodríguez dos Santos was born in 1964 in Mozambique. He is best known for his work as a journalist, which he began in 1981 at Radio Macau. He has worked for the BBC, CNN and Portuguese Radio and Television. He has won awards for both his literary and journalistic work, including two Portuguese Press Club awards and three CNN awards. He is the author of 24 books translated into 20 languages, each of which has sold over 100,000 copies. Since the 2000s he has published several thriller and historical fiction novels, including Immortal, God’s Formula, The Man from Constantinople, Codex 632, among others.