Review: The Good Dictator by Gonçalo J. Nunes Dias

Published: November 2016

Pages: 256

Synopsis: “Synopsis I

An unidentified object parked on the moon - and no one seems to know where it came from. Gustavo, a middle-aged computer programmer with a comfortable and grey life, decides to make a list of what he would need to survive a hypothetical attack. He becomes obsessed with the list, spends a fortune, robs a drugstore: his own family thinks he is going insane. However, after the attack, it’s the insane who are well prepared for a new era in society. First book of a trilogy.

Synopsis II

- A genre-busting book that includes adventure, thriller, dystopia or utopia and an exciting love story.

- A trilogy: part one happens in southwest Europe, in our time.

- The main character, Gustavo, does not get along well with his parents-in-law, and his wife does not like Gustavo’s friends.

- There’s an object parked on the Moon, but curiously, the unfolding of the story does not take place in New York, for instance.”

Rating: ***

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I received a free copy from the author in exchange for an honest review.

The first thing I noticed was that The Good Dictator either wasn’t written in English, or had been but English isn’t the author’s first language. There were some issues with tenses and plurals at the beginning, and some language discrepancies that made the plot a little muddled. For example, at one point Gustavo says that his wife is a good Mother to his boys/sons, but a few pages later you discover that Gustavo and his wife have 1 son and 1 daughter. Initially I found this quite off-putting but as the novel progressed these little discrepancies added to the charm of the novel and the overall feel of it.

Books that have storylines which are apocalyptic or invasion based are usually a good study of human society and characteristics as you realise how people would react in such situations; with the classic example being Lord of the Flies by William Golding. There were also some good nods to popular culture which gave the plot context and a definite time period. I wasn’t seen on Gustavo as a character and don’t think he would be someone I would follow in these circumstances. It was an interesting read for an invasion based novel to not be set in a major city, but in a rural part of Portugal, which gave the book a different atmosphere and pace than it would have had if it had been set in New York or London for example.

The Good Dictator was a very well thought out debut novel from Portuguese author Goncalo J. Nunes Dias . Personally, I don’t know if I enjoyed it enough to read the next instalment, but I am intrigued to find out what happens next.