NO VACANCY

NO VACANCY Lisbon, in the grip of the pandemic. The Pessoa Guesthouse has been closed for months, its rooms empty and its exhibition left unseen. Martinho, the manager, is alone in the building when the phone begins to ring, and the old neon sign in the window flickers back to life: NO VACANCY. On the other end, a booking. Then another. Soon the guesthouse is full again, and its seven guests are not quite what they seem. Each takes a room, each brings a voice, and each wants something from the man holding the keys. As the guests settle in, a real-estate fund circles the building, and Martinho must decide what he is willing to protect: a business, a house, or the strange company that has made him feel less alone. Are they ghosts, memories, or something he cannot explain? And what happens when the neon finally goes dark? A whimsical, melancholic novel about poetry, solitude and the places that hold us.