António Lobo Antunes was born in Lisbon as the eldest of six sons of João Alfredo de Figueiredo Lobo Antunes, prominent Neurologist and professor, close collaborator of Egas Moniz, Nobel prize of physiology, and wife Maria Margarida Machado de Almeida Lima. He is the brother of João Lobo Antunes and Manuel Lobo Antunes. At the age of seven he decided to be a writer, but when he was 16, his father sent him to the medical school of the University of Lisbon. He graduated as a medical doctor, later specializing in psychiatry. During this time he never stopped writing. By the end of his education, Lobo Antunes had to serve with the Portuguese Army to take part in the Portuguese Colonial War. In a military hospital in Angola he became interested in the subjects of death and "the other." Lobo Antunes came back from Africa in 1973. The Angolan War of Independence was the subject of many of his novels. He worked many months in Germany and Belgium. In 1979, Lobo Antunes published his first novel, Memória de Elefante, in which he told the story of his separation. Due to the success of his first novel, Lobo Antunes decided to devote his evenings to writing. He has been practicing psychiatry as well, mainly at the outpatients' unit at the HospitalMiguel Bombarda of Lisbon. His style is considered to be very dense, heavily influenced by William Faulkner and Louis-Ferdinand Céline, and his books also tend to be on the longer side. He has published more than twenty novels, among the most important are Fado Alexandrino, As Naus and O Manual dos Inquisadores. His works have been translated to more than thirty languages. He was granted the Grand Cross of the Order of Saint James of the Sword.
Personal life
He married his first wife Maria José Xavier da Fonseca e Costa, the second of three daughters of José Hermano da Costa and wife Clara da Conceição de Barros Xavier da Fonseca e Costa, by whom he has two daughters: Maria José Lobo Antunes in 1971 and Joana Lobo Antunes in 1973. They were divorced. His second wife was Maria João Espírito Santo Bustorff Silva, daughter of António Sérgio Carneiro Bustorff Silva and wife Ana Maria da Anunciação de Fátima de Morais Sarmento Cohen do Espírito Santo Silva, by whom she has one daughter: Maria Isabel Bustorff Lobo Antunes. He was married for the third time in 2010 to Cristina Ferreira de Almeida, daughter of João Carlos Ferreira de Almeida and wife Natércia Ribeiro da Silva.
