Image: Jonathas de Andrade, Jonathas de Andrade, Educação para Adultos (Education for Adults), 2010 60 posters of 34x46 cm each
This month we showcase writing from Brazil. With the country's current upheaval in the international spotlight, the writers here provide insight into this complex nation's culture. Cristhiano Aguiar, Carol Bensimon, Horácio Costa, Orides Fontela, Angélica Freitas, Armando Freitas Filho, Rodrigo de Souza Leão, Vinicius Jatobá, Antônio Moura, Laurenço Mutarelli, and Antônio Prata contribute fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. Guest editor Stefan Tobler provides an introduction and several beautiful translations. We thank the Fundação Biblioteca Nacional of Brazil and the Brazilian Embassy in Washington, D.C., for their generous support of the issue. In our special section, we present poetry from the Faroe Islands by Sissal Kampmann, Tóroddur Poulsen, and Vónbjørt Vang.
Introduction: Writing from Brazil
How should a writer respond to a country as full of variety and stories as Brazil?
Four Short Tales
Employ hackers to adulterate the online versions of "Hamlet."
bilingual
Natanael
For a diver, fear brings trouble.
bilingual
Becoming Ishmael
I part the sea in two.
bilingual
Mermaid in Earnest
The mermaid treads on knives when she uses her feet.
bilingual
from “All Dogs are Blue”
I’ll either leave here dead—or something worse.
Sixteen Degrees on Avenida Paulista
I saw the Paraguayan go astray in the night
bilingual
from “underwater snooker”
Did you forget you’re supposed to slow down going downhill?
Hiatus
Loyal tattoo, immune to the time of origin.
bilingual
from “O Cheiro do Ralo”
I thought how I could spend a week just looking at her behind
Vigil
Immobile Bird.
bilingual
Father’s Chair
But only one chair was Father's chair, the heir's chair.
bilingual
Book Reviews
Ádám Bodor’s “The Sinistra Zone”
Reviewed by Emma Garman
"The Sinistra Zone" is neither an easy nor an enjoyable read. It is, however, an interesting one
Vsevolod Nekrasov’s “I Live I See”
Reviewed by Ariell Cacciola
Repetitions were important to Nekrasov: to him monotony could also unlock multiplicity.