Amare dei tomar haate

(Bangla, I place myself in your hands)

Inês Pedrosa

Translated from Portuguese, Nas Tuas Mãos (1997), by Rita Ray

JADAVPUR UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2020

Amare Dei Tomar Haate builds upon the entwining narratives of three extraordinary women from three generations, each radical, revolutionary, political and queer in their own way, each directly participating in the political history of Portugal of her own time.

The novel offered more compelling and irresistible visual motifs than I could possibly accommodate on the cover – the colours for the three main characters, for instance, were gleaned from the novel itself. Pedro and Antonio, the two men flanking Jenny on the front cover are described in her journal as the sun and the moon, and Jenny herself is seen in her contemporary milieu as a Santa Madonna – Eve and the Virgin Mary put together.

This was also my first ever hand-lettering experiment in Bangla, so it was very special to me.