The Modern Novel

Biography

Sum Marky was born José Ferreira Marques in 1921 in São Tomé. His father was a merchant. He was an accounting assistant in the Treasury before going to Portugal in 1943, where he studied in the Faculty of Medicine in Lisbon. He returned to São Tomé, where he became deputy secretary to the Municipal Chamber. He published his first novel in 1956 which, like his later ones, was critical of the colonial system. Several of his books were condemned for their opposition to Portuguese rule, as this list shows and he was imprisoned for publishing No altar da lei. He died in 2003.

Other links

Sum Marky (in English and Portuguese)
Sum Marky 1921 – 2003 (in Portuguese)