Another posts a picture of a writing desk gleaming in the ancient light of the Captains-General Palace, now a museum. Agualusa traces their conversations as they wonder together whether the world they know has ended, and what, real or imagined, might come next. A writer writing writers (writing writers), the novel is a meditation on constructed worlds.” —Theodore Anderson, Newcity “The Living and the Rest isn’t merely a literary festival-novel . [The Living and the Rest] successfully sublimates political, cultural and human concerns into daily life.” —Robert Rubsam, The Washington Post “In José Eduardo Agualusa’s clever and appealing The Living and the Rest . His translations (from Portuguese, Spanish, and French) include fiction from Africa, Europe and Latin America, and he has translated works by Machado de Assis, José Luís Peixoto, María Dueñas, José Saramago, Eduardo Halfon, Corsino Fortes, and Roger Mello.