Celebrated writer of contemporary Indian literature, Amitav Ghosh released ‘Disappearance of Irene dos Santos’, a work of fiction by Margaret Mascarenhas, at Sunaparanta Goa Centre for the Arts, on Sunday.

Describing the book as a ‘Labour of Love to Venezuela’, Ms Mascarenhas said that the novel is based on an incident that happened in Venezuela earlier this decade, wherein a statue of the iconic Maria Lionza, constructed in the middle of road by the Venezuelan dictator, General Marcos Pérez Jiménez, during early the 1950s developed cracks, thus creating a huge furore throughout the country.

“The incident was seen by different people in different contexts; some of them even feeling that there was an evil in that country,” the author told an elite gathering present for the book release.

Stating that writing fiction is always a joy for her, Ms Mascarenhas maintained that she considers herself just a writer; not an Indian writer or a Venezuelan writer, or for that matter a women writer. She further informed that she was told to reconsider her decision of using a number of Venezuelan colloquial terms and Spanish words in the book, but decided to stick to her decision.

Mr Ghosh described ‘Disappearance of Irene dos Santos’ as an ambitious book in structure and content. “It is a very rich portrait of Venezuela, including anthropology, political dynamics and history of that country,” he added.

The chairman of the Sunaparanta Goa Centre for the Arts, Mr Dattaraj Salgaocar introduced Ms Mascarenhas as a multifaceted, creative and hard working writer, with ability to think out of the box. “She does innovative things and her first love is writing,” he observed, pointing out that he had liked her first book ‘Skin’ released in 2001.

The author also read out an extract from her new book for the audiences. The crowd gathered at the book release included the Ambassador of Portugal to India, Dr Luis Filipe de Castro Mendes; the Consul General of Portugal to Goa, Dr Paulo Neves Pocinho; internationally reputed singer/ musician, Remo Fernandes, and noted Goan writers, Maria Aurora Couto and Damodar Mauzo among others.