Redol published stories in the newspapers O Diabo and Sol Nascente in which he identified with the opposition to the Estado Novo.

[3] This novel started a series of works of fiction depicting the difficult lives of peasants and fishermen in Portugal in the first half of the 20th century: Marés (1941), Avieiros (1942), and Fanga (1943).

In November 1945, Redol was called to the Central Committee of the Movement of Democratic Unity (Movimento de Unidade Democrática) and chose to actively participate in the campaigns for the fake elections held by the Salazar regime.

Redol published the novel Horizonte Cerrado in 1948; it was the first volume of a trilogy about the Portuguese wine-making region of Douro.

A Barca dos Sete Lemes was translated into English by Linton Lomas Barrett and published as A Man with Seven Names by Knopf in 1964.