The Crime of Father Amaro by Eca de Queirós

The explosive and highly controversial 2002 film of The Crime of Father Amaro (El crimen del Padre Amaro) is set in Mexico, in a material and religious culture of this century not unlike the provincial Portugal where, as a young man, Eça de Queiros was despatched to train for the consular service. The Crime of Father Amaro is set in Leiria, a provincial cathedral city, in which the hypocrisies of churchmen were not far to seek. Father Amaro, a young man like Eça himself, with a priestly rather than a diplomatic vocation, falls into a relationship with a woman, and their tragic story unfolds with a harsh relentlessness. The situation of women, tightly swaddled in conformities yet fevered in their illusions of romance, much troubled the young author in this and later books.