O Livro de Todos os Pecados

The story of sin is intimately connected with the story of mankind; one way or the other, it reveals itself in the sacred texts of all main religions. Christian doctrine, for example, is particularly extreme, and its conception of the original sin states that man really is sin.

But what does original sin mean?

By definition, original sin is a deliberated action against the divine laws, however, as time went by, it was used by the ruling powers as a way to control society and its actions. The original sin had many praiseworthy aims (who would dare questioning the kindness of the supposedly divine law determining that a man should not kill another man?) but it frequently had absolutely tragic effects when applied to life.

In O Livro de Todos os Pecados , Alves dos Santos returns to poetry to propose a new paradigm about sin, and he presents it as simultaneously defiant and divergent. In eleven different chapters, the author shows us Man as a naturally predisposed animal to Love. According to the author, Love is sometimes selfish, it is many times misunderstood, sometimes it is not returned and it rarely is fully lived. And yet… it is Love.

One can find Love that starts in innocence; however, when Love dwells through the essence of human reality, it has the ability of both dragging Man into Hell or taking Man to a desired and ephemeral Paradise.

The reader will follow the poetical Hero in a journey where he can be able to commit all sins to be kept away from the only real one. As a reader, you should dare to make this complex journey: dive into the existential uncertainty and be free to live Life and Love the best one can and know.