These Balmy Days

Is love a consolation at the end of life, or a discipline practiced against its fading?

Angelo, an aging American expat, has retreated to a sunlit town on Portugal’s southern coast, hoping to shed the weight of ambition, regret and loss. When his young granddaughter, Tenina, comes to stay for the summer, she offers an alternative way of being: playful, unguarded and rooted in the present.

The two explore seaside villages, befriend eccentric locals, write poetry and marvel at migratory birds preparing for a perilous crossing. Markets, ferries, cafes, and ancient ruins become the stage for a shared understanding. 

But as Angelo confronts the decline of his body and mind, he spies a mysterious presence shadowing their steps, threatening to destroy the precious communion.

Told in lyrical, episodic reflections, These Balmy Days is a luminous exploration of joy in the face of impermanence and loss. Blending travelogue, reflection and poignant intimacy, Shapero offers a stirring meditation on life at the threshold between holding on and letting go.

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About These Balmy Days

A Q&A with Rich Shapero
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Q: I can sense the author’s bias in some of your novels. But for me, These Balmy Days was harder. The ethos represented by Magellan and his voyage is clearly opposed to what we hear from Tiago on his montado. But I wasn’t able to tell which side of the divide the author was on.

RS: Where we find a paradox in life, I think it’s important to recognize it. Choosing sides, it seems to me, is the opposite of enlightenment. For Blake, desire and the striving to fulfill it was everything. For Christ, suffering was essential. For Buddha, both desire and suffering were life’s greatest curses. Can we do any better than to understand these polarities as we’re living with them?

Q: I felt the joy of Angelo’s unanchored existence with Tenina, but it was mixed with the mournfulness of his forced passage.

RS: That’s one of our tragedies. A profound one, I think. The moment in life when we are most aware of the foolishness of our aspirations is when we are no longer capable of achieving them.

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These Balmy Days in the TooFar Media App

The multimedia version of These Balmy Days combines Rich’s novel with poignant line drawings by Dennis Martin and stirring animations.

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Use your device’s camera to scan and download the TooFar Media App. Available on iOS and Android.

Acclaim for These Balmy Days

“Shapero writes about joy and loss the way light moves on water: you can’t hold it, but you can’t look away.”
—Jane W, Goodreads
“A radiant novel that captures what it means to be present when presence itself is slipping away. Deeply moving and deceptively profound.”
—@shereadsandtravels
“These Balmy Days is gorgeous and quietly devastating. Angelo and Tenina’s summer together will stay with me longer than most novels three times its size.”
—Carol P, Goodreads

Download These Balmy Days

These Balmy Days combines novel, art and animations to create a provocative story for the eyes, ears, and imagination.

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Download These Balmy Days

Get the full multimedia novel, including art and animations, in the TooFar Media App.

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