Rubem Fonseca

Each of Fonseca's books is not only a worthwhile journey; it is also, in some way, a necessary one.--Thomas PynchonMost widely admired for his short fiction, The Taker and Other Stories is Fonseca's first collection to appear in English translation, and it ranges across his oeuvre, exploring the sights and sounds of the modern landscape of Rio de Janeiro. Rubem Fonseca's Rio is a city at war, a city whose vast disparities--in wealth, social standing, and prestige--are untenable. In the stories of The Taker, rich and poor live in an uneasy equilibrium, where only overwhelming force can maintain order, and violence and deception are essential tools of survival. Whether recounting the story of a businessman who runs over pedestrians to let off steam, a serial killer being pushed to ever greater crimes by his bourgeois lover, the desperate poor rushing to butcher a cow that has been killed in a traffic accident, or a man seeking out confirmation for a past which his friends deny, Fonseca repeatedly reaffirms his status as one of the purest storytellers on the contemporary Brazilian literary scene. Rubem Fonseca is considered one of Brazil's most influential writers, and was awarded the Pr mio Cam es--considered the Nobel Prize of Portuguese language literature--for his body of work in 2003. That same year he was awarded the Juan Rulfo Prize. Clifford E. Landers has translated many of the great writers of Brazil, including Jorge Amado, Jo o Ubaldo Ribeiro, Patricia Melo, Osman Lins, and Moacyr Scliar among others. He received the Mario Ferreira Award in 1999.

Den samtida brasilianska novellkonsten är utpräglat urban, och liksom storstaden är den heterogen, bildrik och oförutsägbar. Sedan sextiotalet har mångfalden av stilar ständigt blivit allt större. 1970-talets boom har ofta beskrivits som en storhetstid för novellen i Brasilien, men egentligen har novellen sedan dess aldrig dragit sig tillbaka. Det finns en kontinuitet i viljan till förnyelse, från Clarice Lispector via Silviano Santiago till yngre författare som Adriana Lisboa. Den här antologin tar avstamp med några moderna klassiker från sjuttiotalet, men tonvikten ligger på det nya. De flesta av bokens berättelser har skrivits under de senaste femton åren. Dagens brasilianska novellister visar upp en rad vitt skilda sätt att gestalta den moderna människans situation. Här finns extrem realism, formmässigt experimenterande, erotiska allegorier; här finns omsorgsfullt utmejslade karaktärer sida vid sida med klichéfigurer i masskommunikationens värld. Antologin innehåller följande noveller: João Anzanello Carrascoza: Navelsträngslikt Luiz Ruffato: Yrsel Tatiana Salem Levy: Modlöshet Veronica Stigger: Olivia Tandpetare André Sant’Anna: Mina memoarer Adriana Lisboa: [Mikronoveller] Amilcar Bettega Barbosa: Ärftligt Cíntia Moscovich: Taket och spelmannen Tércia Montenegro: DT Marçal Aquino: Rost Marçal Aquino: Fabel Fernando Bonassi: [Mikronoveller] Rubens Figueiredo: Utan de andra Silviano Santiago: Days of Wine and Roses Moacyr Scliar: Van Goghs öra Márcia Denser: Vampyren på Alameda Casabranca Caio Fernando Abreu : De där båda Clarice Lispector: Ljud av steg Luiz Vilela: Den sista rakningen Lygia Fagundes Telles: Såpbubblans struktur Rubem Fonseca: Den andre

Rubem Fonseca's Crimes of August offers the first serious literary treatment of the cataclysmic events of August 1954, arguably the most turbulent month in Brazilian history. A rich novel, both culturally and historically, Crimes of August tells two stories simultaneously. The first is private, involving the well-delineated character of Alberto Mattos, a police officer. The other is public, focusing on events that begin with the attempted assassination of Carlos Lacerda, a demagogic journalist and political enemy of President GetUlio Vargas, and culminate in Vargas's suicide on August 24,1954. Throughout this suspenseful novel, deceptively couched as a thriller, Fonseca interweaves fact and fiction in a complex, provocative plot. At the same time, he re-creates the atmosphere of the 1950s, when Rio de Janeiro was Brazil's capital and the nexus of political intrigue and corruption. Mattos is assigned to solve the brutal murder of a wealthy entrepreneur in the aftermath of what appears to be a homosexual liaison. An educated and introspective man, and one of the few in his precinct not on the take from the "bankers" of the illegal lottery, Mattos suffers from alienation and a bleeding ulcer. His investigation puts him on a dangerous collision course with the conspiracy to depose Vargas, the novel's other narrative thread. The two overlap at several points, coming to their tragic end with the aged politician's suicide and Mattos's downfall.

In these seventeen stories by one of Brazil's foremost living authors, Fonseca introduces readers-with unsurpassed candor and keenness of observation-to a kaleidoscopic, often disturbing world. A hunchback sets his lascivious sights on seducing a beautiful woman. A wealthy businessman hires a ghost writer, with unexpected results. A family of modern-day urban cannibals celebrates a bizarre rite of passage. A man roams the nocturnal streets of Rio de Janeiro in search of meaning. A male ex-police reporter writes an advice column under a female pseudonym. A prosperous entrepreneur picks up a beautiful girl in his Mercedes only to discover his costly mistake. A loser elaborates a lethal plan to become, in his mind, a winner.

What better place to hide a collection of priceless jewels than among the glitter and ostrich feathers of Rio's Carnival parade? The film-director narrator suddenly finds himself the custodian of such a valuable horde after the nocturnal visit of a young dancer who is soon found murdered.