Keeping a Critical Eye on Brazil: A Conversation with Emilio Fraia, by Anderson Tepper

Interviews Emilio Fraia’s Sevastopol, out this summer from New Directions, is the sort of book that beguiles and dazzles in equal measure. Consisting of three disparate stories—of a mountain climber attempting to scale Mt. Everest, a mysterious loner who vanishes into the Brazilian countryside, and an avant-garde production set during the Crimean War—the book is an enigma: Is it a linked collection, a “novel-in-stories,” or something else entirely? Fluidly translated by Zoë Perry, the work came together over an extended period, with sections first published in Granta’s Best Young Brazilian Novelists issue in 2012 and the New Yorker in 2019. Fraia, who lives in São Paulo, spoke over email about Sevastopol, the shadowy realms of fiction, and the “Fora Bolsonaro” movement, among other things. Anderson Tepper: Emilio, before I ask you about the book, I want to know how things are in Brazil right now and what is happening with the pandemic. Emilio Fraia: So far, some 560,000 Brazilians have died, the direct result of Bolsonaro’s criminal conduct during the pandemic. He has made countless statements against the vaccine, against wearing masks, and in favor of ineffective drug therapies. At no point during this tragedy has the president uttered a single word of true grief for victims of the virus. And as if that weren’t enough, now his government is embroiled in a bribery scandal involving the purchase of overpriced vaccines, and every... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'

[ World Literature Today | 2021-08-09 20:31:30 UTC ]

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Book Deals: Week of February 24, 2020

Among this week’s notable deals is the seven-figure sale of a debut novel titled The Other Black Girl. The send-up of the publishing industry, by a former Knopf assistant editor, was pitched as Get Out meets Younger. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-02-21 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Canongate publishing 'astonishing' debut novel from Phil Klay

Canongate is publishing an "astonishing" debut novel of “extraordinary suspense” from award-winning writer and US Marine Corps veteran Phil Klay. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-02-19 20:45:41 UTC ]
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Jeremy O. Harris: Brandon Taylor ‘Subjugates Us With the Deft Hand of a Dom’

In the debut novel “Real Life,” a biochemistry Ph.D. candidate confronts the harder lessons of how to be a gay black man in a white world. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2020-02-18 10:00:07 UTC ]
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Jeremy O. Harris: Brandon Taylor ‘Subjugates Us With the Deft Hand of a Dom’

In the debut novel “Real Life,” a biochemistry Ph.D. candidate confronts the harder lessons of how to be a gay black man in a white world. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2020-02-18 10:00:07 UTC ]
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British Book awards balance art and selling power to decide best writer in 30 years

Novelists rub shoulders with presidents, chefs, comedians and thriller megastars on longlist to define the title with the biggest impact on the book worldIt could be almost the setup for a joke, but a former president, a Booker winner and an erotic fiction superstar have walked on to the British... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2020-02-14 06:01:23 UTC ]
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In ‘Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line,’ an unforgettable voice emerges from an Indian slum

The debut novel follows a child detective bent on tracking down a missing classmate. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2020-02-06 17:56:05 UTC ]
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Review: Chasing homers, ballplayers and dreams

Emily Nemens' debut novel about a fictional baseball team takes on the social swirl of spring training. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

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When Did Self-Help Books Become Literary?

Walk into a contemporary bookstore and self-help manuals are likely to be among the first books you’ll see. In my local Barnes & Noble, a “self-improvement” section is featured in the vestibule, luring customers before they even open the store’s main doors. Inside the store, the boundary... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-01-29 09:49:07 UTC ]
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‘On Swift Horses’ is a vibrant tale of unconventionality

Shannon Pufahl’s remarkable debut novel “On Swift Horses” tells a searing story about a forgotten side of 1950s America. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

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Megan Angelo’s ‘Followers’ looks at the hazards of our hyper-connected world

The debut novel examines the lives of people who are more interested in how they appear online than who they are in real life. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2020-01-21 17:44:04 UTC ]
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Katherine Kayne on the Strong Women of Hawaii’s Painful History

In this delightful debut novel Katherine Kayne sweeps us back to a Hawaii still mourning its lost kingdom, where ladies—their ballgowns covered in yards of protective fabric—gallop across the mountains and down the city streets on their way to polo matches and parties, men dance the hula as well... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-01-17 09:46:07 UTC ]
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Listen to Book Riot’s New Podcast NOVEL GAZING!

Get a fresh take on literary fiction with Book Riot's new podcast, Novel Gazing, your destination for lit fic news, book recommendations, and more. Continue reading at Book Riot

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The Impossible Exercise of Interviewing Leonora Carrington

Heidi Sopinka’s debut novel The Dictionary of Animal Languages is the deceptively gentle tale of the aging artist Ivory Frame, whose character and life are based, both loosely and closely, in alternation, on Leonora Carrington. In fact, Sopinka was struggling to write the book—struggling to get... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-01-13 09:48:01 UTC ]
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Such a Fun Age Satirizes the White Pursuit of Wokeness

Kiley Reid’s debut novel is a funny, fast-paced, empathetic examination of privilege in America. Continue reading at The Atlantic

[ The Atlantic | 2020-01-08 13:00:00 UTC ]
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The Best Novels of the 1890s

The 1890s saw pioneering works of science fiction, detective fiction, and Gothic horror all published, by some of the greatest English, Scottish, and Irish writers of the age. In the United States, too, novelists addressed social issues, sometimes in comic ways, while social realism continued to... Continue reading at Interesting Literature

[ Interesting Literature | 2019-12-31 15:00:10 UTC ]
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The Long Tail of ‘Where the Crawdads Sing’

Delia Owens’s debut novel has sold more than four million copies — an astonishing trajectory for any new writer, much less for a 70-year-old wildlife scientist. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2019-12-21 10:00:08 UTC ]
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Considering Darryl Pinckney and Authenticity

This week, Lauretta Charlton reviews Darryl Pinckney’s collection of essays “Busted in New York.” In 1992, Edmund White wrote for the Book Review about “High Cotton,” Pinckney’s debut novel about a young black man coming of age. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2019-12-20 10:00:00 UTC ]
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Ralph Ellison’s Letters Reveal a Complex Philosopher of Black Expression

“The Selected Letters of Ralph Ellison” capture the fiercely intelligent and irreverent author of “Invisible Man” in conversation with other novelists and critics of his day. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2019-12-19 10:00:10 UTC ]
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Read Harder: A Debut Novel By A Queer Author

Find a new author to follow or the first book your fave wrote with this list of debut novels by queer authors for the 2020 Read Harder Challenge. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2019-12-18 11:31:50 UTC ]
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What We're Reading – December 2019

Text Me When You Get Home: the Evolution and Triumph of Modern Female Friendship by Kayleen SchaeferIt’s a non-fiction book about the change in perspective around female friendship over the last few years, featuring interviews with a huge range of people including Judy Blume. The book looks at... Continue reading at British Council global

[ British Council global | 2019-12-17 09:49:28 UTC ]
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