"A tour de force of domestic horrors, placidly delivered with sharp observation....There are surprises and twists that demonstrate a command of form, irony, and humor, but no happy or satisfying endings. What emerges from these narratives is work that feels inherently political, a kaleidoscopic look at a society languishing under repression." –Full Stop
"A definitive collection of stories by a Portuguese master of the form...The stories that make up this remarkable volume are united by their quiet intensity, their commitment to internal turmoil, and their enduring interest in the lives, hopes, and miseries that are unique to women." –Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Melancholic, contemplative, and often heartbreaking." –Foreword Reviews
"Carvalho's story collection about ordinary women struggling to find their purpose is yet another gift to Anglophone readers. In stark, unsentimental prose, the late Portuguese literary powerhouse studies class, society, and gender with surgical precision." –The Millions (One of the Most Anticipated Books of 2023)
"These stories are bold and unsparing, quietly devastating. A fearless exploration of longing and the claustrophobia of loneliness." –Kayla Maiuri, author of Mother in the Dark
"Maria Judite de Carvalho's writing comes out of restriction and confinement, both personal and political. But as I read her stories, I find her way of looking so unsparingly into our shared human darkness brings me comfort and awe and at times even makes me laugh out loud." –Karolina Ramqvist, author of The Bear Woman
Praise for Maria Judite de Carvalho and Empty Wardrobes
"
Empty Wardrobes will give you a sense of domestic life under the dictatorship: In precise, unsentimental prose, it tells the story of three generations of women overshadowed by the death of a patriarch."
–Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida, New York Times
"Executed as precisely and without sentiment as an autopsy...There is no doubting the authenticity of Carvalho's vision and the originality and severity of her voice, as scathing and pitiless in her depiction of 'empty' women as in her depiction of oafish swaggering machismo."
–Joyce Carol Oates, The New York Review of Books
"A book about how men betray women, and how women betray each other...a work that does not hesitate to expose the cruelties and power grabs that lie beneath marriage, and how quickly society discards aging women."
–Rhian Sasseen, Paris Review
"The specter of the patriarchy looms over this mid-20th century tale like depression itself. With the astringent wit of Natalia Ginzburg,
Empty Wardrobes is a spellbinding book of domestic disorder that sparks with bitterness and humor."
–Lauren LeBlanc, Observer
