The Wind Whistling in the Cranes: A Novel

Lídia Jorge

Feb 2022 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Cassandra Campbell

About this audiobook

This breathtaking saga, set in the 1990s, tells the story of the landlords and tenants of a derelict canning factory in southern Portugal. The wealthy, always-scheming Leandros have owned the building since before the Carnation Revolution, a peaceful coup that toppled a four-decade-long dictatorship and led to Portugal's withdrawal from its African colonies. It was Leandro matriarch Dona Regina who handed the keys to the Matas, the bustling family from Cape Verde who saw past the dusty machinery and converted the space into a warm-and welcoming-home. When Dona Regina is found dead outside the factory on a holiday weekend, her granddaughter, Milene, investigates. Aware that her aunts and uncles, who are off on vacation, will berate her inability to articulate what has just happened, she approaches the factory riddled with anxiety. Hours later, the Matas return home to find this strange girl hiding behind their clotheslines, and with caution, they take her in . . . Days later, the Leandros realize that Milene has become hopelessly entangled with their tenants, and their fear of political and financial ruin sets off a series of events that threatens to uproot the lives of everyone involved.

About the author

Lidia Jorge is a leading figure in Portuguese literature whose accolades include European Writer of the Year.

Actress and director Cassandra Campbell has narrated nearly two hundred audiobooks and has received multiple Audie Awards and more than twenty AudioFile Earphones Awards, including for Orange Is the New Black by Piper Kerman.

Margaret Jull Costa, who has translated Jose Saramago and Machado de Assis, lives in England.

Annie McDermott, who has translated Selva Almada and Mario Levrero, lives in England.