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In the 15th century, Portugal, located at the end of the European continent, led the "Geographical Discovery" and opened the glorious age of navigation. In the 1970s, as all African colonies became independent, the former maritime heroes were driven back home and hurriedly stranded in the ruins of the empire. In the distorted and superimposed time and space, Fernand Mendez Pinto, who traveled in Asia for decades and wrote "Travel", became a peddler selling defective products. Vasco da Gama, the "discoverer" of India, won half of Portugal by cheating, and Xavier, the saint who was dedicated to spreading the gospel of Christ, turned into a pimp... The truth and falsehood of history gave birth to scenes of absurd tragedies and comedies, and ambition and fanaticism were shattered in the waves along with the dream of empire. The voyage ship returned dejectedly from the sea, but the train connecting Europe on land was roaring. Between the sea and the land, Africa and Europe, Portugal is struggling to reshape its past, present and future.

This book is a literary work by Portuguese writer Antunes. It tells the story of the protagonist who became weak after the removal of a malignant tumor and endured pain and humiliation all day long, giving him an unusual experience of life and the past. From the end of March to early April 2007, after undergoing a major operation, the protagonist, in the pain and confusion caused by anesthesia and drugs, re-remembered the fragments of his life and the people he met in his life: his parents and grandparents, his childhood village, the mountains, love and hate. The pain of the moment, past memories, and fantasies are all intertwined. Like a flowing river, we live with it the stigma of illness, the approach of death, and the call of life. Antunes' language is like the title of the book, like a flowing river, breaking the boundaries of time and space with a tension-filled non-linear narrative, allowing the characters' voices to naturally interweave in multiple time dimensions.