Jessica Faleiro

The landscape of Goa in Writing

The landscape of Goa in Writing

By Selma Carvalho

Poet and playwright Owen Sheers thinks landscape is what happens to nature when humans arrive. We create landscape, otherwise nature exists, forlorn, desultory and on its own. In every manner the newly released anthology The Brave New World of Goan Writing & Art 2025, edited by me and published by Cinnamon Teal, encapsulates this ethos of Goans interacting with the land of Goa. Identity is that most unknowable thing, constantly changing, a mere shadow on the edges of our consciousness, and yet if something were to exist as Goan identity than that something is our love of the land.

when god died

when god died

By Jessica Faleiro

Your first book Shadow of the Palm Tree (2019) brought to light the presence of the slave trade the Portuguese brought to Goa. Your second book when god died (2023) brings to light the Goa Inquisition, another significant historical event in Goa that isn’t talked about very much. What was the motivation or inspiration for choosing to portray this particular moment of history in your latest novel?

The Unheard: Goa's African Slaves

The Unheard: Goa's African Slaves

In conversation with Vatsala Mendonca

Issue no. 14

Shadow of the Palm Tree opens with a heart-rending tragedy: the death of a mother at her own hands. Yet the shadow of sadness cast on the Abreu family took shape much earlier, in the 1700s, when the family not only converted to Christianity but joined one of the most lucrative enterprises of Christian Europe — the slave trade. This unfortunate career choice would bring the Abreus power, prestige and wealth but also a curse that would snake treacherously through the centuries.

Saudade: Memory, Place and Unmooring

Saudade: Memory, Place and Unmooring

In conversation with Suneeta Peres da Costa

Issue no. 12

Jessica Faleiro in conversation with Suneeta Peres da Costa discusses Costa’s latest book Saudade. This is a coming-of-age story of Maria-Cristina, told from her point of view of growing up against the tumultuous political backdrop of pre-Independence Angola while still under Salazar’s rule.