Abstract (Financial and Identitarian Crises in Contemporary Portuguese Literature: The Case of “Índice médio de felicidade” by David Machado) The 2008 financial crisis had a profound impact across all aspects of life and all fields of activity, eventually making its way into literature. In Portugal – one of the countries most affected – it represented the culmination of a series of crises that had swept the nation in recent years: social, political, and identitarian. It reopened old wounds and instilled a sense of hopelessness and a loss of perspective. The novel “Índice médio de felicidade” [“Average Happiness Index”] by David Machado stands out not only as a cinematic account of these crises, but also as a narrative of the characters’ struggle and resilience in their quest to improve the shelf life of their happiness. This study focuses not only on how these crises are reflected in the novel, but also on its translation into Romanian, examining the techniques used by the translator, including context control, and to convey the anguish, the struggle for optimism, and the pursuit of happiness – feelings that Romanian readers are all too familiar with. The analysis adopts an interdisciplinary perspective, in line with the novel’s own interdisciplinary nature. The translator took into consideration the similarities between the two peoples – particularly in terms of mentality and historical background – in order to make the novel more accessible and emotionally resonant for the target audience.