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Estoril

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Estoril

By: Dejan Tiago-Stankovic
Narrated by: Luis Soto
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About this listen

Set in a luxurious grand hotel just outside Lisbon, at the height of the Second World War, Estoril is a delightful and poignant novel about exile, divided loyalties, fear and survival.

The hotel's guests include spies, fallen kings, refugees from the Balkans, Nazis, American diplomats and stateless Jews. The Portuguese secret police broodingly observe the visitors, terrified that their country's neutrality will be compromised.

The novel seamlessly fuses the stories of its invented characters with appearances by historical figures like the ex-King Carol of Romania, the great Polish pianist Jan Paderewski, the British agent Ian Fleming, the Russian chess grandmaster Alexander Alekhine and the French writer and flyer Antoine de St Exupery, who forms a poignant friendship with a young Jewish boy living alone in the hotel.

Born in the former Yugoslavia in 1965, Dejan Tiago-Stanković is an author and translator. He studied architecture in Belgrade before moving to London. Since 1996 he has lived in Lisbon, translating between his native Serbo-Croatian and Portuguese.

©2022 SAGA Egmont (P)2022 SAGA Egmont 20th Century Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Fiction King Tear-jerking France Imperialism Royalty England Portugal

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Critic reviews

The stories, most of them true, from Popov's rigorous debriefings by his German intelligence handler to Alekhine's terrible death, are extraordinary... [Estoril is] a diverting romp.
-- The Sunday Times

Oddly captivating.
-- Spectator
All stars
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This book was recommended by a friend and I’m so grateful to her as I so enjoyed reading this charming book. I didn’t know anything about Portugal during the Second World War so found it really interesting. I loved the characters, particular Gabby. The reader is absolutely brilliant with all his different accents for the characters. Highly recommend this.

Charming book loved it from beginning to end

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I’m not sure why I even had this book on my wish list really. If you look at the cover it suggests a cozy crime mystery which isn’t really my thing. The blurb must have appealed and I’m very glad it did because I would have missed out on a real treat. The book tells the story of a hotel and its guests in neutral Portugal during WW2. The characters read like a Who’s Who but each stands up as a readable and interesting individual than just a name casually dropped for effect. I loved it.

Don’t judge a book by its cover.

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Estoril is a fictional novel set just outside Lisbon during the early 1940s. The story has invented characters and actual historical people - such as royalty, spies, writers, pianist, a chess GM, and even Ian Fleming - who were there, are interwoven to create an oddly charming and fascinating novel.
A young Jewish boy, Gaby, arrives at the Hotel Palácio in Estoril with diamonds and money, and is waiting for his parents to arrive. Gaby is a curious, confident young man and is looked after by the hotel staff and guests alike. Gaby is among the other refugees waiting to leave Europe, biding their time and surviving in the desperate times during WW2.
The interesting and enigmatic spy Popov meets Ian Fleming in the Casino Estoril. Duško Popov is a Serbian double agent, working for the Yugoslav government in exile in London. Popov is feeding the Germans disinformation, and must have impressed Fleming with his devil may care attitude. Popov is considered one of Ian Fleming's primary inspirations for the character of James Bond.
For me personally, the novel seems to be a series of episodes in the lives of the hotel staff and guests. This makes the storyline a bit disjointed, and you have to concentrate more on the individual episodes and piece them together. The narration is excellent, and captures the essence of the times. A brilliant novel I will listen to again...

An unexpected gem of a novel

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