In Your Hands

An internationally acclaimed, award-winning novel spanning three generations of women united in their struggle for independence and fulfillment against oppression.

Told from three different perspectives, this sweeping saga begins in 1935 Portugal, in the grip of Salazar’s authoritarian regime, where upper-class Jenny enters into an uncommon marriage with the beguiling António. Keeping up appearances, they host salons for the political and cultural elite. In private, Jenny, António, and his lover, Pedro, share a guarded triangle, build a profound relationship, and together raise a daughter born under the auspices of rebellion.

Thirty years later, their daughter, Camila, a photojournalist who has captured the revolutionary fervor and tragic loss of her family―and country―reminisces about a long-lost love in Southeast Africa. This memory shapes the future of her daughter, Natália, a successful architect, who begins an impassioned quest of her own. As she navigates Portugal’s complex past, Natália will discover herself in the two women whose mysteries and intimate intrigues have come to define her.

Through revealing journals, snapshots of a turbulent era, and private letters, the lives of three generations of women unfold, embracing all that has separated them and all that binds them―their strength, their secrets, and their search for love through the currents of change.

Born in 1962, Inês Pedrosa earned a degree in communication sciences from the Universidade Nova de Lisboa before working in the press, on radio, and on television, earning several journalism awards. She was director of the Casa Fernando Pessoa museum from 2008 to 2014. Her weekly column in the Portuguese national newspaper Expresso was awarded the 2007 Prize for Parity for Citizenship and Gender Equality. She currently contributes to two culture-focused radio shows and a public television show, and also works as a literary translator, notably of the work of Milan Kundera. In 2017, she founded her own publishing house, Sibila. Pedrosa has published twenty-four books, including the prize-winning novels In Your Hands (winner of the 1997 Prémio Máxima de Literatura in Portugal), Eternity and Desire (finalist for the 2009 Portugal Telecom Award and the 2010 Prémio Correntes d’Escritas), and The Intimates (winner of the 2012 Prémio Máxima de Literatura). Her work has been published in Brazil, Spain, Italy, Croatia, and Germany. In Your Hands is her English-language debut.