Classic Final (António Lobo Antunes)

Os Cus de Judas by António Lobo Antunes

No, no, keep going straight, take the first right, then the second right, and whether you like it or not you’re in the little Areeiro park. Safe and sound. Me? I’m going to stay a little bit longer around here. I’ll empty the ashtrays, wash the glasses, tidy up the living room, look at the river. Maybe I’ll go back to my unmade bed, pull the sheets up, and close my eyes. You never know, y’know? but it could even be that aunt Teresa will visit me.

This is the ending of Os Cus de Judas (“The Assholes of Judas”; published English translation called “The Land at the End of the World”), published in 1979 by António Lobo Antunes, a practicing psychiatrist known for long, dense novels who is generally considered one of Portugal’s strong contenders for a second Nobel Prize in Literature.

Classic Finals is a recurring series of the (non-spoiler) endings of various novels.