Joaquim Arena

Joaquim Arena was born on the island of São Vicente in Cape Verde in 1964. He moved with his family to Portugal aged 6. After studying Law, he worked as a journalist, first in Portugal, then in Cape Verde. As well as Siríaco e Mister Charles [Siríaco and Mister Charles] (2022), Arena has four earlier titles to his name: the novella Um Farol no Deserto [A Lighthouse in the Desert] (2000), the novels A Verdade de Chindo Luz [The Truth About Chindo Luz] (2006) and Para Onde Voam as Tartarugas [Where Turtles Fly] (2010) and the non-fiction Debaixo da Nossa Pele – Uma Viagem (2017), which was published by The Unnamed Press as Under Our Skin in Jethro Soutar’s translation at the end of 2022.