"A compact, merciless tragedy... I read this novel with something resembling a rapturous grief." -Kate Zambreno

For ten years Dora has ritualistically mourned her husband's death, a pointless ritual that forced her to rely on support from old friends and acquaintances. Her beloved husband, a "Christ" so principled he rejected any ambition whatsoever as a construct of a corrupt society, succeeded only in leaving Dora and their daughter with nothing. When her mother-in-law reveals a shattering secret about their marriage one night, Dora's narrative of her own life is destroyed. Three generations of women-Dora, her daughter, and mother-in-law-must navigate a world that has been shaped by the blundering men off in the distance, figures barely present who nonetheless define the lives of the women they would call mother, wife, or lover.

Narrated through the gritted teeth of an acquaintance, Empty Wardrobes-Maria Judite de Carvalho's cutting 1966 novel, translated from Portuguese for the first time by Margaret Jull Costa and introduced by Kate Zambreno-is a tale of women who are trapped within the quiet devastation of a patriarchal society and preyed upon by the ambient savageries that perch in its every crevice.

Maria Judite de Carvalho (1921-1998) is widely considered one of Portugal's most important writers of the second half of the twentieth century. Born and educated in Lisbon, with a secondary education in France, Carvalho's work spans painting, journalism, and fiction, with a specialization in the short story and novella forms. A writer of great concision with an eye on modernization, the changing politics of Portugal, and the effect of contemporary life on everyday people, especially women, Carvalho published widely and to great critical acclaim in her time. Empty Wardrobes is her first work available in English.

Off in the distance, where you can barely see or hear them, are the bumbling men who shape and limit the lives of the women they call wife, family, or lover. Patriarchy, it turns out, offers very little wiggle room to the subjected, no matter how rebellious or well brought up, how young, old, rich, or poor. In Empty Wardrobes, Maria Judite de Carvalho's 1978 novel, translated here from Portuguese into English for the first time by Margaret Jull Costa, the widow Dora enters her tenth year of grieving. Her husband, "a Christ" so principled he rejects any ambition whatsoever as a construct of a corrupt society, left her and their daughter with nothing. When her mother-in-law reveals a world-shattering secret about the marriage late one night, Dora's narrative of her own life is destroyed, emptied of meaning as thoroughly as it was of material resources at the moment of her husband's sudden death. Dora and her daughter have little recourse but to start again, each in their own way-but is there any hope for a better outcome?

Narrated through the gritted teeth of an acquaintance, Carvalho's short tale of fading grief, new life, and quiet devastation lays bare the limitations of patriarchal love and the ambient savageries perched and waiting in its every crevice.