International Authors Book Club

Read an author of your choosing from a predetermined country. December’s nation is Brazil. We will meet each third Thursday of the month to discuss your author, their works, and any themes they explore.

The suggested authors, all native born, represent just a fraction of Brazil’s literary tradition.

The bolded titles are available through your Santa Fe Public Library as books or ebooks (Hoopla or Overdrive/Libby).

For disability or translation accommodations, please email library@santafenm.gov or call the Library.

Suggested authors:

Jorge Amado, author of Captains of the Sands, The Country of Carnival, Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon; Showdown, Tent of Miracles, and War of the Saints

Amado’s work is varied, with his stories flipping from serious themes of racism and poverty to lighthearted tales of love and misfortune.

Captains of the Sands follows a group of orphans who survive using their cunning and ingenuity in the impoverished slums of Bahia. The story is a perfect read for people looking to learn more about the difficulties of living in 20th Century Brazil.

Carol Bensimon, author of We All Loved Cowboys (ebook)

Born in Porto Alegre in 1982, Bensimon is a novelist and short story writer perhaps best-known to English readers for We All Loved Cowboys (2013). One year prior, Bensimon was named one of the 20 Best Young Brazilian Novelists by UK literary magazine Granta.

Bernardo Carvalho, author of Nine Nights

The prolific writer’s work taps into some of the sadder aspects of modern life with protagonists who are frustrated by their failures and struggles.

Paulo Coelho, author of Adultery, The Alchemist, Aleph, Eleven Minutes, Hippie, Manuscript Found in Accra, The Valkryies, The Witch of Portobello and The Zahir

Coehlo is one of Latin America’s most well-known literary figures with 30 million copies sold in dozens of languages. He uses bizarre lead characters to build fantastic stories that weave together aspects of fantasy with truths about life and profound ideas about the meaning of life.

Euclides da Cunha, author of Backlands: The Canudos Campaign

Cunha’s work often covered the most pressing issues facing independent Brazil. He made a name for himself as a war correspondent during the War of Canudos, which saw the Brazilian state suppress a rebellion in the Bahia State in the 1890s. His book Backlands: The Canudos Campaign was re-published by Penguin Classics in 2010 and solidified his place among the top Latin American writers of the 19th century.

José de Alencar, author of Iracema

The father of Brazilian romantic literature touched on the then-taboo subject of romantic relationships between natives and settlers, notably in Iracema (available in Spanish).

Mario de Andrade, author of The Apprentice Tourist and Macunaima

This is the first English translation of the queer mulatto Brazilian modernist's humorous account of a three-month voyage to the Amazon that prompts him to rethink his ingrained Eurocentrism, explore Indigenous cultures, and struggle to put into words the grandeur of the endangered landscape. Brazil’s largest public library, The Andrade Library, is named after him.

Carlos Drummond de Andrade, author of Multitudinous Heart: Selected Poems

He often highlights the struggles and tragedies of the 20th-century lifestyle. His poetry is especially critical of modernity, exploring the plight of both the modern man and woman. 

Multitudinous Heart: Selected Poems is a collection of Drummond’s best poems that tell stories of life in his small mining hometown, touch on social issues, and explore individualism.

Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, author of A Game, Dom Casmurro, Posthumous memoirs of Brás Cubas: A Novel, and Quincas Borba

Widely acclaimed as the progenitor of 20th-century Latin American fiction, Machado de Assis (1839-1908) -- the son of a mulatto father and a washerwoman, and the grandson of freed slaves -- was hailed in his lifetime as Brazil's greatest writer.

Published in 1899, Dom Casmurro is considered one of the most important pieces of Latin American literature from the late 19th century. The novel is a fictional memoir of a jealous husband with overtones of dark comedy portrayed through Joaquim’s unique realism style.

Cecilia de Meireles, author of Romanceiro de Inconfidencia

She spent countless hours writing as a child, and firmly believed that if more children find their passion for literature, they would live richer lives. So, she helped Brazilian children discover books and poetry by founding the Biblioteca Infantil (Children’s library) in Rio.

Rubem Fonseca, author of The Crimes of August, Pequeñas Criaturas, and The Taker, and Other Stories

The former beat cop took inspiration from what he saw and people he met as a police officer for his crime fiction novels.

Hilda Hilst, author of With My Dog’s Eyes: A Novel

It wasn’t until the 21st century that Hilst’s work exploring women’s rights, sexual liberation, and insanity gained respect globally. With My Dog Eyes: A Novel was published in English by Melville House in 2014 and is widely regarded as Hilst’s finest work. The collection of short stories explores a professor’s descent into insanity. Examples are available in English in A Public Space No. 28 and Cantigas: Galician-Portuguese Troubadour Poems.

Noemi Jaffe, author of What Are The Blind Men Dreaming? (ebook)

She currently has more than a dozen works of critically acclaimed and widely translated fiction and non-fiction to her name. Jaffe also works as a creative writing teacher and columnist.

Adriana Lisboa, author of Crow Blue

She’s experienced life on three continents, so her novels often tap into themes related to moving and migration.

Clarice Lispector, author of The Besieged City, Complete Stories collection, The Hour of the Star, In the Distance With You, Near to the Wild Heart, and The Passion According

The Ukrainian-Brazilian was born to Jewish parents in the USSR who fled to Brazil to escape persecution. She studied law but was distracted from her legal career by her passion for writing. She became a respected journalist in 1940 and moved onto short stories and novels.

The Complete Stories are the stories that made Lispector a Brazilian legend, covering her whole amazing career, from her teenage years to her deathbed.

Ana Paula Maia, author of Of Cattle and Men and Saga of Brutes

The musician, screenwriter, and novelist published her first book online and her career took off from there. Now, the Nova Iguaçu-born author has over half a dozen titles to her name and won the 2018 and 2019 São Paulo Prize for Literature.

Natalia Borges Polesso, author of numerous works

Published in the Bogotá 39: New Voices from Latin America collection in 2017, the novelist, poet, and short story writer has several full-length books to her name, including Amora and Controle. She won her the Jabuti Prize (Brazil’s top literary award) in 2016.

Graciliano Ramos, author of Barren Lives

The prolific journalist and writer gave a voice to the poorest and most marginalized Brazilian communities. 

His Communist Party membership landed him in hot water with Brazil’s repressive regime, and he was jailed for an extended period in the 1930s. In Barren Lives, he tells the story of poverty through a cyclical timeline that follows the relationship between droughts and famine in Brazil.

Moacyr Scliar, author of Max and Cats

The prolific writer was born to Jewish parents in Eastern Europe who fled to Brazil to escape Nazi persecution. His work focuses on the Jewish experience in Brazil in the 20th century. Scliar published over 100 works during his career, with the most famous being Max and Cats.

The book follows the story of a young Jewish man forced to flee Germany. On his way to Brazil, he finds himself stuck on a small boat with no one for company other than a jaguar that was traveling in the hold. The journey is symbolic of the threats Jews faced in Europe.

Max and Cats’ plot will ring a bell for anyone familiar with Yann Martel’s Life of Pi which was published two decades later. Martel credits Scliar's influence at the start of his book, saying the Brazilian gave it ''the spark of life.” Some call it plagiarism.

Scliar’s work appears in The Oxford Book of Jewish Stories and the Vintage Book of Latin American Stories.

Verónica Stigger, author of numerous works

Stigger—a writer, art critic, and university professor—was also included in the Bogotá 39: New Voices from Latin America collection in 2017 and has a dozen published works to her credit.