Life for 57-year-old Raimund Gregorius could not be more common. Having taught the classics in the same Swiss lycee* in Bern for nearly 30 years, he lives a life governed by routine*.

    One day, he runs into a distraught* woman on a bridge who, in a few minutes, moves him deeply and leaves behind one word through which he remembers her: “Portugues.”

    All day, Gregorius thinks about this woman and in the evening, he stops by a bookstore and happens to pick up a book written by a Portuguese doctor, Amadeu de Prado.

    The bookseller translates a few passages for him and Gregorius is surprised. “He thought he heard sentences that were for him alone,” author Pascal Mercier writes. Sentences such as these: “Given that we can live only a small part of what there is in us — what happens with the rest?” Gregorius is eager to answer this question.

    Gregorius decides on a whim* to follow his heart and travel to Lisbon to find out more about the life of the book’s author, Amadeu de Prado.

    Through chance encounters* and through the help of strangers willing to help him, Gregorius slowly pieces together the life of Prado.

    He meets Prado’s two sisters, his lovers, teacher and old friends. Not only does Prado, the enigmatic* Portuguese doctor, come into sharper focus but so does Gregorius — as he tries to piece together the meaning of his own life. (SD-Agencies)