Joaquim Brandeiro

Porto

Joaquim Brandeiro writes short fiction in Portuguese and English and lives in Porto, where he worked for twelve years on the night desk of a small hotel near the river. His stories tend to happen between shifts, in kitchens after closing or on the last boat out. He translates his own work into English and says the second version is usually the one that admits what the first was hiding.

PTEN

Published on HANEEN

Screen-printed illustration of a small ferry crossing dark water at night, its windows lit in warm yellow

FICTION & PROSE

Night Ferry

The last boat leaves at twenty past one. A night clerk, a woman with a cello case and a crossing that takes eleven minutes and somehow lasts all night.

Woodcut of an old valve radio on a crocheted cloth beside a cup, in brown, ochre and faded red

FICTION & PROSE

The Landlady's Radio

The contract was one handwritten page. Rent on the first, no guests after midnight, and the tenant was not to touch the radio. A story about a room above a kitchen in Porto.