We are now on the lookout for more great books in the Portuguese language (or: Lusophone books, for the nerds), after having discovered Susana Moreira Marques’s incredible Now and at the Hour of Our Death in a previous Portuguese reading group.
In previous years we’ve been restricted to reading Portuguese authors only. This year we’re excited to announce that, for the first time ever, we have an all-Brazilian reading list: Sombras de reis barbudos by José J. Veigas, Acre by Lucrecia Zappi, Como se estivéssemos em palimpsesto de putas by Elvira Vigna and Noite dentro da noite by Joca Reiners Terron. Three of the four chosen titles were published within the last two years, while the fourth was published in the 1970s but has been recently republished.
We hope you’ll join us in reading these books. Do get in touch and feel free to add your comments to the author pages. We’d also love to see you at our London or New York meet-up too! We hope you’ll join us in reading the books with us. Do get in touch and feel free to add your comments to the author pages. We’d also love to see you at our US or UK meet-ups too!
How it works
1. To read the whole book, you please order the books yourself from a shop or library. If you have trouble finding a title, we may be able to lend you a copy – email info@andotherstories.org to be put in touch with the organiser, letting us know where you live.
2. Read the books, then add your thoughts online on the author pages.
3. Come to a meet-up in the US or UK to discuss what we have read. You can be sure of lively, well informed discussion.
Where and when
Reading Period:
July – September 2018
Meet-ups:
US Meeting(s): contact info@andotherstories.org to be put in touch with our US group’s organiser Julia Sanches, if you’re interested in meeting up or a Skype discussion.
London Meeting: 5.30pm on Wednesday, 26th September. The Upstairs Room, Three Kings pub, 7 Clerkenwell Close, Clerkenwell, London EC1R 0DY.
Other UK meeting(s): contact info@andotherstories.org to be put in touch with our UK group’s organiser Rahul Bery, if you’re interested in meeting in other UK locations. (A South-West meet-up is already planned.)
Thanks to support from Arts Council England, we can subsidise travel to the UK meet-ups. Please get in touch via info@andotherstories.org if that would help.
Sombras de reis barbudos (Shadows of Bearded Kings)
About the Book
First published in 1972, Sombras de reis barbudos, tells the story of a town that welcomes in the Companhia Melhoramentos de Taitara, an enterprise that promises jobs, modernity and progression. Little by little, however, the company imposes a tyrannical routine on the town’s residents. At the time of its publication, Sombras was read as an allegory of Brazil’s military regime.
Four decades on, critics of Jose J. Veiga have cast new light on this author, expanding his reach. Though his writing is influenced by magical realism, his books don’t fit snugly into this category; they explore the world of children and young adults, and yet are much more than just simple coming of age stories.
Now, readers can see for themselves why José J. Veiga is considered one of Brazil’s greatest twentieth century authors.
Acre
About the Book
The integrity of Oscar’s marriage is threatened by the return of Nelson, his wife’s ex-boyfriend and his former teenage rival. Newly arrived from Acre, he moves into the same building as the couple, in Vila Buarque, near the centre of São Paulo. Caught between paranoia, jealousy, and memories from his adolescence on the beaches of Santos in the 1980s, Oscar wanders around São Paulo, stumbling across wounds from the past and threats of violence that seem to emerge from the streets and penetrate the building he lives in, as well as his mundane, predictable routine. Narrated with ingenuity and precision, Acre submerges the reader in a suffocating, hostile city where prejudice, brutality and decay leap out from every corner.
Noite dentro da noite (Night Within Night)
About the Book
During a game at school, a kid bangs his head and falls into a coma. When he wakes up, he no longer knows who he is and, as his memories begin to dissolve, there begins what will later become known as O Ano do Grande Branco, or the Year of the Big White. In the following months, the boy has the intense sensation that the people who are caring for him and feeding him are not his parents. On top of that, the barbiturates prescribed by his doctor begin to affect his reasoning until, little by little, the boy loses all the things an eleven year old is able to hold as certain. This is where Joca Reiners Terron’s labyrinthine story begins. With a cast of characters that includes spies, warriors, hunters, and a least one monster, Noite dentro da noite travels through Brazil’s recent history, inserting our own reality into the same kaleidoscope that sets this unusual and extraordinary novel into motion.
Como se Estivéssemos em Palimpsesto de Putas (As if We Were in a Palimpsest of Whores)
About the Book
Two strangers meet on a scorching night in Rio de Janeiro. She is a designer looking for work; he has been contracted to bring a publishing house in decline into the digital age. Happenstance brings our protagonists together in one room, where day after day he narrates his frequent encounters with sex workers. She listens more than she speaks, using her imagination to fill the gaps in the story. One of Brazil’s greatest writers, Elvira Vigna takes this framework and uses it to create a powerful literary game of betrayals and innuendos. Como se Estivéssemos em Palimpsesto de Putas is a novel about relationships, power, lies, and imagination.