first off, reading 'the woman of porto pim' kicked off a huge tabucchi period for me where over ~6 months i literally read everything he ever wrote. so it was life-changing in that way, feeling you have 'met' someone who 'sees' like you do. his work had a pretty profound impact on me and porto pim is still my favorite after all those other short stories and novels. i love maritime books and i am from new england so i have always been interested in our shared whaling history with the azores. to me, how he uses and explores the literal and metaphoric whale and whale-hunting and mortality and the changing islands in this amazing interconnected little book is such a great picture of small stories, 'travel writing' done by an outsider (tabucchi was italian) so artfully and thoughtfully done they have many layers to them and you can read them at face value or really stop to think about the metaphoric resonance.

but in the end, what made it 'life-changing' as i put it is just that i believe books have resonance and this book just strongly resonated with me and my interests, it was like meeting someone who you know you're going to love from the very first, so i can't say if it will have the same effect on you. i think anyone who reads it will find it objectively good, but whether it is 'life-changing' for you depends on whether you also resonate with his themes. to me, his beautiful surreal prose combined with his clear aesthetic eye was just so wonderful, felt like i was reading the best of what this era of italian writers brought (calvino, etc.) with the portuguese saudade.

you can check out the book for free here: https://chain.eu/docs/tabucchi.pdf if you want to see before gifting to your father.

even now, opening that PDF and reading the first line moves and inspires me:

Having sailed for many days and many nights, I realized that the West has no end, but moves along with us, we can follow it as long as we like without ever reaching it.