fernando pessoa was many writers in one he attributed his prolific writings to a wide range of alternate selves each of which had a distinct biography ideology and horoscope when he died in 1935 pessoa left behind a trunk filled with unfinished and unpublished writings among which were the remarkable pages that make up his posthumous masterpiece the book of disquiet an astonishing work that in george steiners words gives to lisbon the haunting spell of joyces dublin or kafkas praguepublished for the first time some fifty years after his death this unique collection of short aphoristic paragraphs comprises the autobiography of bernardo soares one of pessoas alternate selves part intimate diary part prose poetry part descriptive narrative captivatingly translated by richard zenith the book of disquiet is one of the greatest works of the twentieth century