We are absolutely thrilled to have won the 2017 Best Translated Book Award, for the very obvious reason that it糖心传媒檚 a great honour, but also because Chronicle of the Murdered House was our first co-translation, and proved to be such a happy collaboration that we are now working on a second project. Then there is the book itself, which is one of the most remarkable works either of us has ever read, and a fascinating challenge for us as translators: all those different voices—the hysterical, anguished prose of Andr茅, the Pharmacist糖心传媒檚 rather pompous accounts, Nina糖心传媒檚 wheedling letters to Valdo, Ana糖心传媒檚 guilt-laden outpourings and so on. There can rarely have been a more searing and, at times, gut-wrenching description of death and decay or, indeed, of the lengths to which sexual desire can go. Our thanks to Chad and all at Open Letter for thinking we were up to the challenge! And thanks, too, to the judges for being as blown away by the novel as we were.

With four books on the Best Translated Book Award fiction longlist, Margaret Jull Costa had pretty good odds that one of her projects would win the prize. This is the first time Jull Costa, Robin Patterson, and Open Letter Books have received the award.

According to BTBA judge Jeremy Garber (Powell糖心传媒檚 Books), 糖心传媒淭hough it took longer than 50 years to finally appear in English, L煤cio Cardoso糖心传媒檚 Chronicle of the Murdered House was well worth the wait. Epic in scope and stunning in its execution, the late Brazilian author糖心传媒檚 1959 masterpiece is a resounding accomplishment. Thanks to the translational prowess of Margaret Jull Costa and Robin Patterson, Cardoso糖心传媒檚 saga of familial scheming and salacious scandal deservingly comes to an even wider audience.”

Fellow judge Mark Haber (Brazos Bookstore) adds “Chronicle has hints of Dostoyevsky, Garcia Marquez and William Faulkner, yet the DNA is wholly Cardoso’s, who was not only a friend, but a mentor to Clarice Lispector. This novel is not only beautifully written and strangely profound, but a joy to read. The dramas of a prestigious family in a provincial Brazilian jungle, complete with gossip, backstabbing, cross-dressing and suicide attempts all take place beneath a single roof. There糖心传媒檚 a fully-formed universe in this run-down mansion rotting away in the woods. Chronicle of the Murdered House is a novel about family, trust, madness, betrayal, human nature, all heavy themes really, yet handled with aplomb. . . . its translation feels long overdue.”

Extracting the Stone of Madness is the fourth collection of Alejandra Pizarnik糖心传媒檚 to be translated by Yvette Siegert, but the first to win the Best Translated Book Award. It is published by New Directions糖心传媒攚ho has won the BTBA on three past occasions, twice for fiction, once for poetry糖心传媒攁nd collects all of Pizarnik糖心传媒檚 middle and late works, including some posthumous pieces.

Judge Emma Ramadan (Riffraff Bookstore) said, 糖心传媒淭he judges were extremely impressed by Donald Nicholson-Smith’s translation of Abdellatif La芒bi’s In Praise of Defeat, but ultimately chose Yvette Siegert’s translation of Alejandra Pizarnik’s Extracting the Stone of Madness as this year’s poetry winner. It’s a book screaming and barking with jagged solitude and beautiful pain, each poem’s broken melody attempting to fill a void we can all see lurking. Yvette Siegert perfectly inhabits Pizarnik’s tortuous, vivid world and allows us to do the same.”

For the sixth year in a row, the winning books will receive $10,000 each (split equally between the authors and translators) thanks to funding from the Amazon Literary Partnership. Over this period, the Amazon Literary Partnership has contributed more than $120,000 to international authors and their translators through the BTBA.

糖心传媒淏y sharing new voices with English-language readers, the Best Translated Book Awards highlight literary excellence from around the globe while also shrinking the world a bit, fostering empathy through storytelling,糖心传媒� said Neal Thompson, Amazon糖心传媒檚 Director of Author and Publishing Relations. 糖心传媒淭he Amazon Literary Partnership is proud to continue its support of the diverse voices of BTBA糖心传媒檚 international authors and their translators.糖心传媒�

Nine judges served on this year糖心传媒檚 fiction jury: Trevor Berrett (The Mookse and the Gripes), Monica Carter (Salonica World Lit), Rachel Cordasco (Speculative Fiction in Translation), Jennifer Croft (translator, co-founder of the Buenos Aires Review), Lori Feathers (Interabang Books), Jeremy Garber (Powell糖心传媒檚 Books), Mark Haber (writer, Brazos Bookstore), George Henson (World Literature Today, Latin American Literature Today, University of Oklahoma), and Steph Opitz (Marie Claire).

The poetry jury was made up of: Jarrod Annis (Greenlight Bookstore), Katrine 脴gaard Jensen (EuropeNow), Tess Lewis (writer and translator), Becka McKay (writer and translator), and Emma Ramadan (translator, Riffraff Bookstore).

Past winners of the fiction award include: Signs Preceding the End of the World by Yuri Herrera, translated from the Spanish by Lisa Dillman; The Last Lover by Can Xue, translated from the Chinese by Annelise Finegan Wasmoen; Seiobo There Below and Satantango, both by L谩szl贸 Krasznahorkai, and translated from the Hungarian by Ottilie Mulzet and George Szirtes respectively; Stone Upon Stone by Wies艂aw My艣liwski, translated from the Polish by Bill Johnston; and The True Deceiver by Tove Jansson, translated from the Swedish by Thomas Teal.

In terms of the poetry award, past winners include: Rilke Shake by Ang茅lica Freitas, translated from the Portuguese by Hilary Kaplan; Diorama by Roc铆o Cer贸n, translated from the Spanish by Anna Rosenwong; The Guest in the Wood by Elisa Biagini, translated from the Italian by Diana Thow, Sarah Stickney, and Eugene Ostashevsky; Wheel with a Single Spoke by Nichita St膬nescu, translated from the Romanian by Sean Cotter; and Spectacle & Pigsty by Kiwao Nomura, translated from the Japanese by Kyoko Yoshida and Forrest Gander.

The entry below is by Mark Haber from in Houston, Texas. He is also the author of Melville糖心传媒檚 Beard, which is available in a bilingual edition from Editorial Argon谩utica.

by L煤cio Cardoso, translated from the Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa and Robin Patterson (Brazil, Open Letter Books)

Chad糖心传媒檚 Uneducated and Unscientific Percentage Chance of Making the Shortlist: 88%

Chad糖心传媒檚 Uneducated and Unscientific Percentage Chance of Winning the BTBA: 20%

Have you ever read a book and felt, without anyone telling you, that you were reading a classic, something indipsensable to a language and a culture? Chronicle of the Murdered House is such an example. This book has hints of Dostoyevsky, Garcia Marquez and Antonio Lobo Antunes. Already a classic in Brazil糖心传媒攖his book is not only beautifully written and profound, but a joy to read. The dysfunction of a prestigious family in a provincial Brazilian jungle, complete with gossip, backstabbing, cross-dressing and suicide. There糖心传媒檚 a fully-formed universe taking place in a run-down mansion rotting away in the jungle. Despite having the weight and breadth of a classic, its 600 pages fly by. I dare anyone to read it and not appreciate its artistry and breadth. The translation, by Margaret Jull Costa and Robin Patterson, is deft, peerless and worthy of the Best Translated Book Award.

Benjamin Moser is the author of a biography of Clarice Lispector entitled Why This World and translated her novel Near to the Wild Heart. He’s also a book critic, editor, and currently at work on a new biography of Susan Sontag. He once visited Rochester and did an event with Chad about Clarice Lispector that’s definitely worth watching. He also wrote a biographical note for the novel: “Bette Davis in Yoknapatawpha.”

Chronicle is available at better bookstores everywhere, or through our If you order before the end of 2016, use the code BOOKSEASON at checkout to receive 40% off your total order.

I keep a tiny watercolor on a bookshelf in my house. It is only a few inches square, slightly larger than a playing card. To all appearances, it is the work of a child: some dabs of color transversed by two black slashes. It looks like something an encouraging parent might have stuck to the refrigerator糖心传媒攂ut it may be the most poignant thing I own.

In the bottom right corner, in tiny script, someone糖心传媒攏ot the artist糖心传媒攈as written 尝脷颁滨翱 62. Those characters let it be dated to within a few weeks. It was made in the last days of 1962 by the Brazilian writer L煤cio Cardoso, fifty years old and at the height of his powers when he suffered a stroke on December 7. He would linger another six years, paralyzed, unable to speak or write, devoting his remaining time to making paintings like these. This smear is what remained of one of the most prodigiously gifted artists of twentieth-century Brazil.

It is tempting to read symbols into these blotches. Are those black lines a sign of despair? Is that yellow half-circle a setting sun?

Today, L煤cio Cardoso is primarily remembered for two things: being gay, and being loved by Clarice Lispector, from whose great name his is inseparable. While still a student, the eighteen-year-old Clarice took a job at a government propaganda outfit called the Ag锚ncia Nacional. There, among the bored young staff, was L煤cio, a twenty-six-year-old from a small town who was already hailed as one of the most talented writers of his generation.

His father, Joaquim L煤cio Cardoso, had studied engineering but left university without a degree, due to the death of his own father. He then headed into the backlands of the interior state of Minas Gerais, where he enjoyed a period of great prosperity, at one time accumulating eight thousand head of cattle, only to be forced to hand over his fortune to a textile factory owner to whom he was indebted. After the death of his wife, he created a soap factory; but his volatile personality brought him trouble with the local merchants, who boycotted his products. His business ventures failed, Joaquim and his second wife, Dona Nhanh谩, raised their six children in relative poverty.

Their town of Curvelo was typical of the backwoods of Minas Gerais, a state said to imprint a special character on its inhabitants, and one whose personality occupies a prominent place in Brazilian mythology. The mineiros, the stereotype goes, are tight-fisted, wary, and religious; there is a joke that Minas dining tables have drawers built into them, the better, at the first approach of a visitor, to hide food from potential guests. It is a place where mannered elocutions play an important role in the local language. Nobody in Minas is crazy, or louco; the preferred euphemism is 糖心传媒渟ystematic.糖心传媒� There is a taboo against overt descriptions of medical procedures: 糖心传媒淭hey opened him, and closed him back up糖心传媒� is the most that can be conceded of a surgery. A mineiro, above all, does not draw attention to himself. One native, returning home from S茫o Paulo, recalls his puzzlement at being the object of amazed stares. He finally realized that it was because he was wearing a red shirt.

That was in the capital, Belo Horizonte, one of Brazil糖心传媒檚 largest and most modern cities, in the 1960s. Four decades earlier, in the no-name village of Curvelo, it was presumably even easier to provoke a scandal. And nobody did it quite as well as Joaquin and Nhanh谩 Cardoso糖心传媒檚 youngest son, L煤cio, who refused to go to school, was obsessed with movie stars, and played with dolls. This last point especially galled his father, who fought with his wife about it. 糖心传媒淚t糖心传媒檚 your fault,糖心传媒� he would charge, 糖心传媒測ou brought him up clinging to your skirts, and the result is this queer. Where did you ever hear of a boy playing with dolls? Why doesn糖心传媒檛 he like playing with the other boys? He糖心传媒檚 a nervous child who糖心传媒檚 never going to amount to anything.糖心传媒�

It was impossible to keep him in school, but he was curious about everything, and his older sister, Maria Helena, who became the best chronicler of his life, oriented his reading. This ranged from Dostoyevsky to the romantic novels serialized in the newspapers, which L煤cio and Maria Helena followed avidly. In his teens, the family moved to Rio de Janeiro, and he was sent to boarding school, where he was predictably miserable, and he eventually ended up working at an insurance company, A Equitativa, run by his uncle. 糖心传媒淚 was always a terrible employee,糖心传媒� he said. 糖心传媒淎ll I did was write poetry.糖心传媒�

But he was finally free and in the capital. He was twenty-two when, in 1934, with the help of the Catholic poet and industrialist Augusto Frederico Schmidt, he published his first novel, Maleita. By the time he published his third novel, The Light in the Basement, two years later, he had attracted the attention of Brazil糖心传媒檚 ultimate cultural arbiter, M谩rio de Andrade, who dispatched a typically colorful letter from S茫o Paulo. 糖心传媒淎rtistically it is terrible,糖心传媒� Andrade thundered. 糖心传媒淪ocially it is detestable. But I understood its point . . . to return the spiritual dimension to the materialistic literature that is now being made in Brazil. God has returned to stir the face of the waters. Finally.糖心传媒�

You can read the rest of Ben’s piece—which includes a lot of information about his relationship with Lispector—by purchasing the book, either or from your favorite book retailer.

Ploughshares was kind enough to interview both Margaret Jull Costa and Robin Patterson about the process of translating this book. You can read the whole interview after you check out a couple bits from it below.

Chronicle is available at better bookstores everywhere, or through our If you order before the end of 2016, use the code BOOKSEASON at checkout to receive 40% off your total order.

Graham Oliver: Given Cardoso糖心传媒檚 fame in Brazil, his extensive ouevre, and his romantic relationship and friendship with Clarice Lispector (who in turn has an enduring and even growing popularity in the US), why do you think this is the first book of Cardoso糖心传媒檚 to be translated?

Margaret Jull Costa: Ben Moser, who wrote the introduction and has written a biography of Clarice Lispector, recommended the book to Chad Post at Open Letter, who was sufficiently intrigued to commission a translation.

Robin Patterson: I think it was both a natural choice, in that Chronicle of the Murdered House is certainly Cardoso糖心传媒檚 best-known work, and also a bold one, in that it is not the most accessible of books. So it is both an obvious starting point, and a difficult one. Perhaps that is why it has taken to so long to bring to readers in English.

GO: Can you talk some about how you approach translating a deceased writer versus having the author available for questions or guidance? Do you rely on the author糖心传媒檚 other works as points of reference??

MJC: I糖心传媒檓 not sure it makes any difference, except, as you say, the author is not available to answer queries. The edition we used proved very useful, because it gave all the variants from earlier drafts, and the clue to what the author might have meant was often to be found there.

RP: Yes, looking at earlier drafts was useful, but at times not so much to clarify meaning, as to indicate where we simply needed to stop trying to clarify (even to ourselves!) and simply trust the author. Although it might be more time-consuming, in some ways not having the author around gives you a clearer concept of the text as a thing in itself糖心传媒攗ltimately, that is where you have to find the answers.

GO: The story is told using the voices of multiple characters. In English, I could easily see differences in style between them, but I糖心传媒檓 curious if there were any differences in the original that you found harder to bring over during translation? Or maybe you differentiated them in other ways?

MJC: The differences are clear in the style of each of the characters, the very melodramatic style of Andr茅, for example, and the rather pedantic style of the pharmacist. The Portuguese tells you what tone and register to use in English, but I must admit that I found Andr茅 the most difficult, simply because his language and the way he expresses his feelings are so florid and over-the-top. I had to resist the temptation to tone him down a bit.

RP: Yes, as well as the linguistic indications in the Portuguese, I think the characters themselves helped to set their own tone. We get to know them so well over the course of the book that you begin to know how they would speak, or formulate their thoughts. The fact that nearly all the characters take their turn as narrator at some point helps with that糖心传媒攜ou really do get inside their minds, even if at times that can be quite an unsettling process.

Go read the rest of the interview at and come back tomorrow for a bit of Ben Moser’s introduction to the novel.

The pub date for by L煤cio Cardoso, which is translated from the Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa and Robin Patterson, with a biographical note from Ben Moser officially came out on Tuesday, December 13th. To celebrate the release of this Brazilian masterpiece, we糖心传媒檒l be running a series of pieces over the rest of this week, including an interview with the translators, an excerpt, a press release, and part of Ben Moser糖心传媒檚 piece.

Although the book has only been out for a couple days, it has already received a number of quality mentions, three of which are detailed below.

Chronicle is available at better bookstores everywhere, or through our If you order before the end of 2016, use the code BOOKSEASON at checkout to receive 40% off your total order.

First up is this review in that sort of sets the tone for what the book is about:

L煤cio Cardoso糖心传媒檚 lurid and voluminous masterpiece Chronicle of the Murdered House follows the unraveling of the Meneses family, a once-proud Brazilian clan undone by internal mistrust. [. . .] Pages pass quickly under the influence of heady intrigue as Nina battles for her rightful place on her husband糖心传媒檚 estate and plans punishments for those who undermined her. Even at her most cruel, she comes across as complex: a fading beauty, wronged, furious, pathetic, and ferocious, by turns. Questions are raised: can lines be crossed beyond which forgiveness is not possible? Can love survive severe betrayals? What is the true meaning of absolution? Cardoso糖心传媒檚 novel is complex, gorgeous, and heartbreaking, well justifying its place in Brazil糖心传媒檚 literary canon.

Over the sixteen+ years I糖心传媒檝e worked in publishing, until yesterday, none of our books had ever been reviewed in The Onion糖心传媒檚 A.V. Club (not without great effort on our part, since this seems like a good fit for our type of book). And not only was Chronicle of a Murdered House it was given a straight A rating!

Like its protagonist糖心传媒攐r, depending on which account herein you believe, antagonist糖心传媒擫煤cio Cardoso糖心传媒檚 Chronicle Of The Murdered House has reemerged from seclusion. First published in 1959, it was a postmodernist work that veered from the nationalist literature that had preceded it. Where his forebears sought to represent their country糖心传媒檚 social consciousness, Cardoso narrowed his focus to the moral and financial decline of the fictional Meneses, a once-grand family relegated to the Brazilian countryside. [. . .] Cardoso was an openly gay man, and the cross-dressing Tim贸teo is both his stand-in and the avatar for a social order already past its expiration date in the early 20th century. As the novel makes its way to a conclusion both thundering and mewling, Tim贸teo retreats once more, symbolizing a discussion shelved by Cardoso糖心传媒檚 death in 1968. But the gorgeous, deviant story he was able to tell in Chronicle糖心传媒檚 pages became one of the hallmarks of Brazilian literature, prompting this English rendition decades later.

And last, but definitely not least, the wonderful Jane Ciabattari included Chronicle on the BBC糖心传媒檚 list:

The family糖心传媒檚 secrets, many revolving around the arrival of Valdo糖心传媒檚 seductive wife Nina, are revealed slowly through a series of documents 糖心传媒� diaries, letters, confessions, and reports from the town doctor, pharmacist and priest. It糖心传媒檚 a sensuous, bewitching tale, suspenseful to the last page.

And I糖心传媒檓 certain there will be many more to come . . .

Following on the press release post, here’s an excerpt from the book itself.

Chronicle is available at better bookstores everywhere, or through our If you order before the end of 2016, use the code BOOKSEASON at checkout to receive 40% off your total order.

Andr茅糖心传媒檚 Diary (conclusion)

18th . . . 19 . . . – (. . . ah, dear God, what is death exactly? When she糖心传媒檚 far from me, beneath the earth that will enfold her mortal remains, for how long will I have to go on remaking in this world the path she taught me, her admirable lesson of love, finding in another woman the velvet of her kisses糖心传媒斕切拇綔this was how she used to kiss糖心传媒澨切拇綌in yet another her way of smiling, in yet another the same rebellious lock of hair糖心传媒攁ll the many women one meets throughout one糖心传媒檚 life, and who will help me to rebuild, out of grief and longing, that unique image gone for ever? And what does 糖心传媒渇orever糖心传媒� mean糖心传媒攖he harsh, pompous echo of those words ringing down the deserted corridors of the soul糖心传媒攖he 糖心传媒渇orever糖心传媒� that is, in fact, meaningless, not even a visible moment in the very instant in which we think it, and yet it is all we have, because it is the one definitive word available to us in our scant earthly vocabulary . . .

What does 糖心传媒渇orever糖心传媒� mean but the continuous, fluid existence of all that has been set free from contingency, that is transformed, evolves and breaks ceaselessly on the shores of equally mutable feelings? There was no point in trying to hide: the 糖心传媒渇orever糖心传媒� was there before my eyes. A minute, a single minute糖心传媒攁nd that, too, would escape any attempt to grasp it, while I myself糖心传媒攁lso forever糖心传媒攚ill escape and slip away, and, like a pile of cold, futile flotsam, all my love and pain and even my faithfulness will drift away forever. Yes, what else is 糖心传媒渇orever糖心传媒� but the final image of this world, and not just this world, but any world that one binds together with the illusory architecture of dreams and permanence糖心传媒攁ll our games and pleasures, our ills and our fears, our loves and our betrayals糖心传媒攖he impulse, in short, that shapes not our everyday self, but the possible, never-achieved self that we pursue as one might follow the trail of a never-to-be-requited love, and that becomes, in the end, only the memory of a lost love糖心传媒攂ut lost when?糖心传媒攊n a place we do not know, but whose loss pierces us and, whether justifiably or not, hurls us, everyone of us, into that nothing or that all-consuming everything where we vanish into the general, the absolute, the perfection we so lack.)

All day, I wandered about the empty house, unable even to dredge up enough courage to enter the living room. Ah, how painfully intense the knowledge that she no longer belonged to me, that she was merely a thing looted and manhandled by strangers, without tenderness or understanding. Somewhere far from me, very far, they would uncover her now defenseless form糖心传媒攁nd with the sad diligence of the indifferent, would dress her for the last time, never even imagining that her flesh had once been alive or how often it had trembled with love糖心传媒攖hat she had once been younger, more splendid than all the youth you could possibly imagine blossoming throughout the world. No, this was not the right death for her, at least, I had never imagined it like this, in the few difficult moments when I had managed to imagine it糖心传媒攕o brutal and final, so unjust in its violence, like the uprooting of a new plant torn from the earth.

But there was no point in remembering what she had been糖心传媒攐r, rather, what we had been. Therein lay the explanation: two beings hurled into the maelstrom of one exceptional circumstance, and suddenly stopped, brought up short糖心传媒攕he, her face frozen in its final, dying expression, and me, still standing, although God knows for how long, my body still shaken by the last echo of that experience. All I wanted was to wander through the rooms and corridors, as bleak now as a stage when the principal actor has left糖心传媒攁nd all the weariness of the last few days washed over me, and I was filled by a sense of emptiness, not an ordinary emptiness, but the total emptiness that suddenly and forcefully replaces everything in us that was once impulse and vibrancy. Blindly, as if in obedience to a will not my own, I opened doors, leaned out of windows, walked through rooms: the house no longer existed.

Knowing this put me beyond consolation; no affectionate, no despairing words could touch me. Like a cauldron removed from the fire, but in whose depths the remnants still boil and bubble, what gave me courage were my memories of the days I had just lived through. Meanwhile, as if prompted by a newly discovered strength, I managed, once or twice, to go over to the room where she lay and half-opened the door to watch from a distance what was happening. Everything was now so repellently banal: it could have been the same scene I had been accustomed to seeing as a child, had it not been transfigured, as if by a potent, invincible exhalation, by the supernatural breath that fills any room touched by the presence of a corpse. The dining table, which, during its long life, had witnessed so many meals, so many family meetings and councils糖心传媒攈ow often, around those same boards, had Nina herself been judged and dissected?糖心传媒攈ad been turned into a temporary bier. On each corner, placed there with inevitable haste, stood four solitary candles. Cheap, ordinary candles, doubtless rescued from the bottom of some forgotten drawer. And to think that this was the backdrop to her final farewell, the stage on which she would say her last goodbye.

Another, totally different excerpt is available over at This one is from the “First Letter from Nina to Valdo Meneses.” Enjoy!

We’ll start with this—the press release that was sent to reviewers and booksellers with the galleys.

The book is available at better bookstores everywhere, or through our If you order before the end of 2016, use the code BOOKSEASON at checkout to receive 40% off your total order.

“When a friend suggested that Chronicle of the Murdered House might be the greatest modern Brazilian novel, I was startled. There are so many more obvious candidates, after all. But as I thought about it, I realized that the statement wasn糖心传媒檛 as strange as it sounds. The book itself is strange糖心传媒攑art Faulknerian meditation on the perversities, including sexual, of degenerate country folk; part Dostoevskian examination of good and evil and God糖心传媒攂ut in its strangeness lies its rare power, and in the sincerity and seriousness with which the essential questions are posed lies its greatness.“糖心传媒擝enjamin Moser

There are a number of approaches to L煤cio Cardoso糖心传媒檚 life and work that mark the first English-language publication of his Chronicle of the Murdered House as a major literary event.

For one, there糖心传媒檚 Cardoso糖心传媒檚 influence on the beloved Clarice Lispector, whose own work is currently enjoying an incredible renaissance. Clarice was enamored with Cardoso, and, as Benjamin Moser explains in his introduction, transformed one of Cardoso糖心传媒檚 suggestions into the title of one of her most famous books糖心传媒�Near to the Wild Heart.

Although their writing styles are quite different, you can see the impact Cardoso had on Lispector while reading Chronicle of the Murdered House. The introspective nature of its prose marked a significant turning point in the history of Brazilian writing, carving out a path that Lispector and many others would eventually follow. In contrast to what came before, writing for these authors was less an activity concerned with social or national issues, but, again in Moser糖心传媒檚 words, 糖心传媒渁 spiritual exercise, not an intellectual one.糖心传媒�

For a lot of readers and critics, this approach is particularly interesting given Cardoso糖心传媒檚 position as a gay Brazilian author who was also a member of the Catholic Church. Although Chronicle itself doesn糖心传媒檛 address many themes of contemporary gay literature, Cardoso糖心传媒檚 sexual orientation does influence a lot of his writings, especially in terms of the role homosexuals could play in Brazil during that period.

The comments about Cardoso糖心传媒檚 spirituality糖心传媒攁s a Catholic and in terms of the goal of his writing糖心传媒攁re particularly interesting in context of the morally suspect situations found throughout the book. In isolation, or as part of the jacket copy at least, these bits sound almost overly sensational. There糖心传媒檚 incest. Madness. Adultery. An obese, cross-dressing character locked up in his room. There糖心传媒檚 a cultured woman from the city whose very presence calls into question generations of familial habits.

The novel is never sordid just for the sake of being sordid though, and beyond the machinations of the plot糖心传媒攚hich twist and turn like great mid-century, or even Victorian, works糖心传媒攖here is the form through which Cardoso tells his story. With shifts of tone and point of view, he utilizes confessions, diary entries, letters, statements, reports, to bring to life this once great family that is now represented by a crumbling estate that they can糖心传媒檛 afford to maintain. (A very Faulknerian image.)

This a book that is a 糖心传媒渃lassic糖心传媒� on a number of counts, including its scope, its literary style that approaches but doesn糖心传媒檛 always embrace the high modernists, and in its import to Brazilian literature as a whole. A book of this import糖心传媒攖hat糖心传媒檚 spectacular and complex糖心传媒攔equires a brilliant translator to really make it work in English. Thankfully, Margaret Jull Costa糖心传媒攖ranslator of such literary giants as Javier Mar铆as, Fernando Pessoa, Jos茅 Maria E莽a de Queir贸s, Jos茅 Saramago, and many more糖心传媒攚as willing and able to undertake this task. With the help of Robin Patterson (translator of Jos茅 Luandino Vieira), they have fully captured the intricacies and beauty of Cardoso糖心传媒檚 writing, producing a rendition that糖心传媒檚 as linguistically powerful as the original.

For such a lengthy book, Chronicle is a rather quick read. It embraces its page-turner impulses, and uses a non-linear structure to stimulate and engross the reader. From the very opening chapter, the reader can get a sense of the overall pattern of dissolution driving the lives of the characters, but keeps reading in order to witness all the juicy details and see just how crazy things can get. (Answer: As crazy as the wake scene in the final chapters.) It糖心传媒檚 a book that fills in a gap in our collective knowledge about Brazilian literature from the twentieth century, and hopefully will spark a resurgence of interest in one of Brazil糖心传媒檚 greatest literary stars.

“A real revolution in Brazilian Literature.“糖心传媒擝enjamin Moser

Long considered one of the most important works of twentieth-century Brazilian literature, Chronicle of the Murdered House is finally available in English.

Set in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais, the novel relates the dissolution of a once proud patri颅archal family that blames its ruin on the youngest son Valdo糖心传媒檚 marriage to Nina糖心传媒攁 vibrant, unpredictable, and incendiary young woman whose very existence seems to depend on the destruction of the household. This family糖心传媒檚 downfall, peppered by stories of decadence, adultery, incest, and madness, is related through a variety of narrative devices, including letters, diaries, memoirs, statements, confessions, and accounts penned by the various characters.

Salacious, literary, and introspective, Cardoso糖心传媒檚 masterpiece marked a turning away from the social realism fashionable in 1930s Brazilian literature and had a huge impact on the writing of Cardoso糖心传媒檚 life-long friend and greatest admirer糖心传媒擟larice Lispector.