I will give Tabucchi another shot then. IF Pereira Declares is NOT translated by Tim Parks.. (you would not believe some of the sentences that made it past 'editing and 'proof' into the English version of Indian Nocturne) I didn't think the rendering of Damascenor Monteiro was all that bad. The prose was lucid. The preachy sections by the lawyer stuck out from the story line, it was not all that enagaging or supported in the context of the narrative. He seemed a mechanism more than a character. ---