Award-winning author paulo da costa meditates on fatherhood, place, and memory during a trip to his childhood home in Vale de Cambra, Portugal.

During an extended stay in his childhood home in Portugal, author paulo da costa distills the wide-eyed innocence, joy, and curiosity of his four-year-old son as he meets his aging grandparents and explores an unfamiliar country and culture into a beautiful, tender, and poetic portrait of father-son relationships.

Evocative and heartwarming, Trust the Bluer Skies is a literary time capsule—a father’s vivid account of his son’s early years, a sensory-rich journey through rural Portugal, and a poignant exploration of masculinities that is positive, compassionate, and nurturing.

Born in Angola and raised in Portugal, paulo da costa is a writer, editor and translator living in Victoria, BC. His first book of fiction, The Scent of a Lie, received the 2003 Commonwealth First Book Prize for the Canada-Caribbean Region and the W.O. Mitchell City of Calgary Book Prize. His poetry and fiction have been published in literary magazines around the world and have been translated to Italian, Mandarin, Spanish, Serbian, Slovenian and Portuguese. His latest book of fiction, The Green and Purple Skin of the World, was released by Broadview Press / Freehand Books in 2013.

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“A haunting memoir about the perils and promise of returning home and the joy of leaving it forever changed.”—Foreword Reviews

"Serves as a contemplative accounting of the ones we hold dear and the invisible threads that connect past and future."—Literary Review of Canada
"In an engaging and affecting poetic language...Trust the Bluer Skies: Meditations on Fatherhood pushes us...to rescue the sacred energies that pave the way for genuine beings to emerge—beings beyond labels or enclosures, always seeking illumination.”—PRISM Magazine

“Intimate and lyrical.” —Anthony De Sa, author of Children of the Moon

"A luminous meditation on Portugal, family, childhood, and time: both evocative and wise." —Mark Abley, author of Strange Bewildering Time

“Trust the Bluer Skies is a transcendentally, stunning meditation on parenthood, community, and place. Crackling with wisdom and honesty, da costa reminds us that better is possible if we’re only willing to imagine, if we’re only willing to try. Deeply observed, evocative, brave and full of promise. Memoir at its best.” —Ali Bryan, author of Coq

“One man’s work to change the meaning of father—for himself, his son, and us.” —Richard Harrison, author of On Not Losing My Father’s Ashes in the Flood

“A portrait of the intimate bond between a father and his young son. paulo da costa guides his four-year old and us, through Vale de Cambra, Portugal, revealing his strong ties to family, his heritage and culture, and the landscape of his youth. He steers us to what he values in life now, eschewing the trappings of mainstream culture in favour of a less consumptive, peaceful existence. Engaging, inspiring, and always tender, this is a memoir to savour slowly.” —Esmeralda Cabral, author of How to Clean a Fish: And Other Adventures in Portugal