Books Set in Portugal
Join me as we journey around the world in our book club. This month we are in Portugal!
Our featured reads sweep you away to the sun-drenched charm and rich history of Portugal. The Filigree Master’s Assistant by Jeannine Johnson Maia offers a beautifully layered coming-of-age tale set in 19th-century Porto, where a young apprentice discovers art, ambition, and the danger of past secrets. In A Perfect Algarve Villa, a glamorous Londoner finds her world upended when a sudden move to Portugal forces her to trade luxury for budget breakfasts—only to discover resilience she didn’t know she had, but will family secrets ruin everything?
Book Club Pick – Portugal
The Filigree Master’s Assistant by Jeannine Johnson Maia
What is The Filigree Master’s Apprentice about?
Portugal, October 1877: When 17-year-old Henrique is offered a job in Porto, he jumps at the opportunity to escape his harsh life among the vineyards of a Port wine estate. Behind him is a searing betrayal he wants to forget. Ahead is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work in the elegant shop of a goldsmith in a city that’s preparing to inaugurate a magnificent new iron bridge over the Douro River.
In Porto, though, the welcome he receives is far from friendly. As he struggles to make the city his own, he explores its sinuous streets, rubbing shoulders with mapmakers and rabble-rousers, and begins to learn the delicate art of filigree-making. Until an acquaintance from his past appears, dredging up old accusations of thievery and threatening all he’s built…
Jeannine Johnson Maia on Literary Escapes Podcast
Want to know more about Jeannine and her books? Listen to the conversation on the Literary Escapes Podcast!
Author Interview with Jeannine Johnson Maia
Companion Book
Each month we choose two books to read from our destination. Here’s the second book!
A Perfect Algarve Villa by Debbie Morrison
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Emily loves her glamorous life in London, but it’s all about to come crashing down. Her banker husband’s lost his job, their beloved townhouse is for sale, and they’re relocating to Portugal to save money.
The Villa Anna is beautiful, with bougainvillea tumbling down the walls, but living on a shoestring budget is a shock. To make ends meet, they launch a B&B, and Emily’s days are soon filled with six am wake-ups, fixing dodgy plumbing, and cooking breakfasts to order.
As she begins to create her own version of paradise, Emily finds talents she never knew she had. But navigating a new country is never easy, and when old secrets surface, tensions start to rise…
More Books Set in Portugal
Beyond the two books we chose for the book club, we found several additional books, from historical fiction to thrillers, women’s fiction, and mysteries.
Fiction set in Portugal offers readers a fresh and often overlooked literary escape. While many European novels gravitate toward more familiar locales like France or Italy, Portugal provides a unique blend of charm, culture, and history that feels both distinctive and immersive. From the sun-soaked Algarve coast to the atmospheric streets of Lisbon and Porto, these stories are enriched by the country’s rich traditions, soulful tone, and deeply layered past—making them a rewarding journey for those seeking something a little different.
Which book will you choose for a literary escape to Portugal?
The Guilt Trip by Sandie Jones
Genre: Thriller
Rachel and Jack. Paige and Noah. And Will. Five friends who’ve known one another for years. Then along came Ali, Will’s new fiancée.
The three couples travel to Portugal for Ali and Will’s destination wedding. The weekend away at the gorgeous cliff-top villa is a chance to relax and get to know Ali an little better. She seems perfectly nice—and Will seems happy after years of bad choices.
But when Rachel discovers a shocking secret about Ali, everything changes. As the wedding weekend unfolds, the secrets each of them holds begin to spill, and friendships and marriages threaten to unravel.
The Two Hotel Francforts by David Leavitt
Genre: Historical Fiction
It is the summer of 1940, and Lisbon, Portugal, is the only neutral port left in Europe-a city filled with spies, crowned heads, and refugees of every nationality, tipping back absinthe to while away the time until their escape.
Awaiting safe passage to New York on the SS Manhattan, two couples meet: Pete and Julia Winters, expatriate Americans fleeing their sedate life in Paris; and Edward and Iris Freleng, sophisticated, independently wealthy, bohemian, and beset by the social and sexual anxieties of their class.
As Portugal’s neutrality, and the world’s future, hang in the balance, the hidden threads in the lives of these four characters-Julia’s status as a Jew, Pete and Edward’s improbable affair, Iris’s increasingly desperate efforts to save her tenuous marriage-begin to come loose.
300 Days of Sun by Deborah Lawrenson
Genre: Historical Fiction
Traveling to Faro, Portugal, journalist Joanna Millard hopes to escape an unsatisfying relationship and a stalled career. Faro is an enchanting town, and the seaside views are enhanced by the company of Nathan Emberlin, a charismatic younger man. But behind the crumbling facades of Moorish buildings, Joanna soon realizes, Faro has a seedy underbelly, its economy compromised by corruption and wartime spoils. And Nathan has an ulterior motive for seeking her company: he is determined to discover the truth involving a child’s kidnapping that may have taken place on this dramatic coastline over two decades ago.
Joanna’s subsequent search leads her to Ian Rylands, an English expat who cryptically insists she will find answers in The Alliance, a novel written by American Esta Hartford. The book recounts an American couple’s experience in Portugal during World War II, and their entanglements both personal and professional with their German enemies. Only Rylands insists the book isn’t fiction, and as Joanna reads deeper into The Alliance, she begins to suspect that Esta Hartford’s story and Nathan Emberlin’s may indeed converge in Faro—where the past not only casts a long shadow but still exerts a very present danger.
The Librarian Spy by Madeline Martin
Genre: Historical Fiction
Ava thought her job as a librarian at the Library of Congress would mean a quiet, routine existence. But an unexpected offer from the US military has brought her to Lisbon with a new mission: posing as a librarian while working undercover as a spy gathering intelligence.
Meanwhile, in occupied France, Elaine has begun an apprenticeship at a printing press run by members of the Resistance. It’s a job usually reserved for men, but in the war, those rules have been forgotten. Yet she knows that the Nazis are searching for the press and its printer in order to silence them.
As the battle in Europe rages, Ava and Elaine find themselves connecting through coded messages and discovering hope in the face of war.
More Madeline Martin
Madeline is a frequent guest here at Literary Escapes. Be sure to check out her podcast appearance on Episode 141 for more on The Impact of Books Amidst Conflict. Or visit Episode 10 to hear about her Scottish romance books and The Last Bookshop in London.
City of Spies by Mara Timon
Genre – Historical Fiction
LISBON, 1943: When her cover is blown, SOE agent Elisabeth de Mornay flees Paris. Pursued by the Gestapo, she makes her way to neutral Lisbon, where Europe’s elite rub shoulders with diplomats, businessmen, smugglers, and spies. There she receives new orders – and a new identity.
Posing as wealthy French widow Solange Verin, Elisabeth must infiltrate a German espionage ring targeting Allied ships, before more British servicemen are killed. But, the closer Elisabeth comes to discovering the truth, the greater the risk grows. With a German officer watching her every step, it will take all of Elisabeth’s resourcefulness and determination to complete her mission.
But in a city where no one is who they claim to be, who can she trust?
The Portugal Sapphire by J. A. Jernay
Genre – Mystery
A faraway country.
A desperate investigator.
And a priceless missing tile.
After months of unemployment, Ainsley Walker is wondering if her career as a gemstone detective will ever take off.
When suddenly…
A handsome importer asks her to travel to Portugal—the gorgeous but overlooked jewel of Western Europe—to search for a stolen tile with a priceless sapphire baked into it.
She’s broke. This is her way out.
It’s another fast-paced adventure. Soon Ainsley is racing across the country—
—from thieves’ fairs to antique trams—
—from the dark spirits of Roman ruins to the dangerous roads of rural wine valleys—
Ainsley faces pain, financial ruin, and the loss of her dream …
…unless she can solve this twisted, mysterious case.
The House that Alice Built by Chris Penhall
Genre – Women’s Fiction
She was renovating her house, but maybe now she can renovate her whole life . . .
Alice Dorothy Matthews is nothing if not sensible. She leaves the adventures to other people, in particular, her best friend Kathy, who’s living it up in Portugal. Alice is renovating her house in London while her insufferable ex, Adam, travels the world.
Alice tells herself she’s fine just the way things are. But then a postcard from Buenos Aires turns her life upside down . . . Her ex wants to sell the house that they bought together.
So Alice does something spontaneous for the first time in many, many years. She joins Kathy in sunny Portugal.
Alice feels alive for the first time in forever. She remembers how she used to be carefree and adventurous. Can she find her way back to the person she used to be?
Then her newfound sense of self begins to attract the attention of gorgeous — and arrogant — Luis . . .
Will Alice realize that you don’t always need a house to find a home?
Rossio Square N. °59 by Jeannine Johnson Maia
Genre – Historical Fiction
n a city filled with intrigue and betrayal, Rossio Square N.°59 is a story of lost dreams, infinite hope, and two young people caught up in change they never sought or wanted.
April 1941: As Hitler’s army marches across Europe, 17-year-old Claire flees to Lisbon alone. But the Portuguese capital isn’t the safe haven she expected. When two refugee children she promised to take care of go missing, she sets out on a dangerous search to find them.
Antonio, an aspiring artist and occasional pickpocket, waits tables in a café that’s a wartime hotspot for plotters and spies. When a German refugee he’s befriended there is murdered, Antonio knows he owes it to his friend to find out why.
Amid the chaos of WWII Lisbon, their investigations intertwine as Claire and Antonio uncover a secret that others have died to keep. What they don’t know is that it could cost them everything.
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