Short prose – Literarische Agentur

Andrea del Fuego

SB — Tue, 20 Oct 2020 10:34:01 +0000

José Saramago Prize 2011Andrea del Fuego

Brazil

Andrea del Fuego was born in São Paulo in 1975. She studied philosophy and journalism and has worked on the literary TV programme Entrelinhas (“Between the Lines”). She has written a number of highly acclaimed adult novels and children’s books. Her short stories have been published in various Brazilian and international anthologies. THE MALAQUIAS was shortlisted for the prestigious São Paulo Prize for Literature 2011 and the Jabuti Prize 2011. Andrea del Fuego has been awarded unanimously the José Saramago Prize 2011. Her novel THE PAEDIATRICIAN was semifinalist of the Oceanos Prize 2022 as well as finalist of the São Paulo Prize for Literature 2022 and the Jabuti Prize 2022.

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I Deny Everything. Sudden Fictions

Desire, betrayal, malice and acidity permeate these explosive pages, with lively texts that provoke, disturb and make you laugh – just like in The Paediatrician, whose protagonist is the epitome of this scathing aspect of the writer‘s work. I Deny Everything. Sudden Fictions (“Nego tudo. Ficções súbitas”) is both an aesthetic delight and a sophisticated exercise in literature by an experienced author, who plays with form in very short stories and challenges common sense, questioning any Manichaeism.
In a handmade, numbered edition restricted to friends, first published in 2005, I Deny Everything was, unbeknown to anyone, the genesis of what would become Andrea del Fuego‘s new oeuvre two decades later. A sui generis book, which on its twentieth anniversary gets this new version, revised and reworked in detail by del Fuego: half of the stories have been replaced, others rewritten, but the rebellious essence remains.

Quotes

I Deny Everything. Sudden Fictions

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The Paediatrician

Although medicine was a natural choice for Cecília, following in the footsteps of her father, she does not match the image one expects of a paediatrician. A doctor who is not at all maternal, with little affection for children and zero patience for their mothers and fathers.
And yet she has a successful practice as a sought-after neonatologist. Gradually, however, she ends up losing ground to a humanist paediatrician, who works with doulas, midwives and accompanies home births. Even the obstetrician with whom she has always worked seems to prefer the humanist.

Cecília undertakes an obsessive dive into the universe of humanised childbirth and alternative medicine, despite being practices she deeply despises. In parallel, she has a relationship with a married man, whose son she treats professionally during his birth. And this child will awaken unexpected feelings and attitudes in her.
With caustic humour and deft, succinct prose, Andrea del Fuego presents in The Paediatrician (“A Pediatra”) an insightful look at human behaviour and key contemporary issues, such as ethics, empathy and the limits that can be easily crossed by those in a position of power.

Quotes

The Paediatrician

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The Miniatures

In her new novel The Miniatures (“As miniaturas”), Andrea del Fuego plunges the reader into a highly original world made up of dreams and reality. In a mysterious building full of corridors, people are working, under strict regulations, as interpreters of dreams. One day, as he leads a boy through his dreams using plastic miniatures, an interpreter realizes the boy is the son of one of his other clients. Although not allowed to work with members of the same family, the interpreter doesn’t report it and gets more and more involved in the lives of mother and son. Once again the author captivates her readers with a profound and entertaining novel.

Quotes

The Miniatures

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The Malaquias

The Malaquias (“Os Malaquias”) is an intriguing, intelligent story of family ties and fate in a world where magic lives alongside reality: When their parents die after being struck by lightning, Nico, Antônio and Júlia are separated. While each one tries to make it on their own, they continue to look for each other. Nico stays behind on a coffee plantation, while Antônio and Júlia are sent to an orphanage. In time, Antônio joins Nico and his family and Júlia becomes a successful dressmaker. Then Nico decides to leave for new shores, where he is sure he will see his sister again. A captivating family saga enhanced by a fresh literary tone that skillfully combines scientific conciseness with magical elements.

Quotes

The Malaquias

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Crystal Skull Society

The world is living through an epidemic caused by an unknown virus, the Bola. The virus has already killed many people, including the grandfather of Vitor, a super-smart thirteen-year-old boy, skinny, with pimples on his face, who lives alienated from the world in front of his computer. Because of Samara, with whom he is in love, the young man discovers a game on the internet, the Skull, and ends up joining the mysterious Crystal Skull Society (“Sociedade da Caveira de Cristal”). To advance in the game, Vitor has to leave the computer on, the internet connected, and to fall asleep, because the game continues in his dreams. Thus, all the players have the same dream and live the same adventure. But Vitor, Samara, and the smart Jorjao (who owns an internet cafe) realize that something is wrong in this story and that together they can save the world from Bola.

Quotes

Crystal Skull Society

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Plush Detectives

Margô and Dominique are two cute, spoilt little dogs who live the high life at Sítio Bambuzal, surrounded by lush plants and curious animals. The sisters’ peaceful existence, however, comes to an end when a baby chick, and then a kitten, are found dead. It was enough for Hermes, their guardian, to remind them that they were animals with a hunting instinct for the ‘plush sisters’ to become the prime suspects and end up in trouble. Unwilling to accept this and determined to clear their names (and get back to their good life), they take on the role of detectives and launch an investigation to discover who is behind the mysterious crimes.

Plush Detectives (“Detetives de pelúcia “) was the first children’s book by Andrea del Fuego and marked her entry into the world of stories for young readers, with the biting humour and sharp eye that were already her trademark in her adult novels. Now it is being reissued by Escarlate, with the text revised by the author and brand-new illustrations by Kaká Leal, which enhance the interplay between sweetness and suspicion that drives the plot. A plot full of red herrings, surprising allies — including even a certain Scottish ghost pirate — and a pair of clever investigators who are much more than just cute.

RIGHTS

NOVELS
The Paediatrician (“A Pediatra”)
São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2021, 160 p.
Audiovisual rights under option at Anonymous Content (USA/Brazil)
Finalist of the Jabuti Prize 2022
Finalist of the São Paulo Prize for Literature 2022
Semifinalist of the Oceanos Prize 2022
English sample translation available by Nina Perrotta (winner of PEN Presents 2026 and finalist for Gulf Coast Prize in Translation 2025)
Argentina: Edhasa 2023 (Spanish world rights) · Greece: Carnívora · Portugal: Companhia das Letras (PRH) 2022 · Slovakia: Portugalsky 2024 · Sweden: Tranan 2024 · UK: Faber and Faber

The Miniatures (“As Miniaturas”)
São Paulo: Companhia das Letras 2013, 136 p.
English sample translation available
Argentina: Edhasa 2015 (Spanish world rights) · France: Éditions de l’Aube 2018 · Portugal: Porto Editora 2014

The Malaquias (“Os Malaquias”)
Rio de Janeiro: Língua Geral 2010, 276 p. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras 2022, 2023, 190 p.
film rights under option
José Saramago Prize 2011
English sample translation available
Argentina: Edhasa (Spanish world rights) 2012 · France: Éditions de l’Aube 2015 · Germany: Hanser 2013 (leading title autumn 2013) · Israel: Kinneret 2014 · Italy: Feltrinelli 2013 · Kuwait: Alsurra · Portugal: Porto Editora 2012, Companhia das Letras (PRH) 2023 · Romania: Vivaldi 2014 · Sweden: Natur & Kultur 2014 · Uruguay: Banda Oriental

SHORT PROSE
I Deny Everything. Sudden Fictions (“Nego Tudo. Ficções súbitas”)
São Paulo: Fina Flor 2005, 164 p.; Companhia das Letras 2025 (reworked and enhanced edition)

SHORT STORIES
I Deny Fire (“Nego Fogo”)
São Paulo: Dulcinéia Catadora 2009, 27 p.

Your Mistake (“Engano Seu”)
São Paulo: O Nome da Rosa 2007, 84 p.

I Lie While I Can (“Minto enquanto Posso”)
São Paulo: O Nome da Rosa 2004, 130 p.

CHRONICLES
I’m Almost Falling (“Quase Caio”)
São Paulo: Editora Escala Educacional 2008, 93 p.

NOVELS FOR YOUNG READERS
Crystal Skull Society (“Sociedade da Caveira de Cristal”)
São Paulo: editora Scipione 2008, 182 p.; Escarlate (Companhia das Letras) 2024, 224 p.
Over 300,000 copies sold in Brazil!

NOVELS FOR CHILDREN
Plush Detectives (“Detetives de pelúcia”)
(Ill. by Kaká Leal)
São Paulo: editora Scipione 2010, 88 p., Escarlate (Companhia das Letras) 2026, 96 p.
Recommended for over 9 years old
Argentina: Edhasa 2013

PARTICIPATION IN ANTHOLOGIES (SELECTION)
Brazil 25 – 2000-2015 (“Brésil 25 – 2000-2015”)
France: Métailié 2015

Other Carnivals: New Stories from Brazil
UK: Full Circle 2013

Microcontos. Minigeschichten aus Brasilien
Germany: dtv 2013

Popcorn on Copacabana. Young Brazilian literature (“Popcorn an der Copacabana. Junge brasilianische Literatur”)
Germany: Wagenbach 2013

Generation Zero Zero (“Geração Zero Zero: Fricções em Rede”)
Brazil: Língua Geral 2011

Feminine Stories (“Histórias Femininas”)
Brazil: editora Scipione 2011

Written Writers (“Escritores Escritos”)
Brazil: editora Flaneur 2010

Blablablogue
Brazil: Editora Terracota 2009

A River of Tales – A Luso-Brazilian Anthology (“Um Rio de Contos – Antologia Luso-Brasileira”)
Portugal: Editorial Tágide 2009

Present Future (“Futuro Presente”)
Brazil: Record 2009

90-00 Contemporary Brazilian Short Stories (“90-00 Cuentos brasileños contemporáneos”)
Peru: Ediciones Copé (Petroperu) 2009

Gallery of the Supernatural (“Galeria do Sobrenatural”)
Brazil: Terracota Editora 2009

Silvina Ocampo

SB — Wed, 28 Oct 2020 09:50:44 +0000

National Prize for Poetry 1962Silvina Ocampo

(1903-1993)
Argentina

Silvina Ocampo was born in Buenos Aires in 1903 to an elite Argentine family. With her husband Bioy Casares and their close friend Jorge Luis Borges, Ocampo collaborated on two anthologies while at the same time publishing fiction and poetry on her own. A short story writer and a poet of very rare talent, Silvina Ocampo was awarded the National Prize for Poetry in 1962, among several other literary awards. She died in Buenos Aires in 1993.

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About her work

Ocampo’s lasting fame rests on her volumes of short stories, published between 1937 and 1988, such as Autobiografía de Irene (“Irene`s Autobiography”, 1948) and La furia y otros cuentos (“The Fury and other Stories”, 1959) as well as posthumously published works such as Las repeticiones y otros cuentos (“The Repetitions and other Stories”, 2006) or her novel La torre sin fin (“The Topless Tower”, 2006).

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The Promise

In 2011 Sudamericana published Ocampo’s “posthumous autobiography”. The novel The Promise (“La promesa”) is an intelligent, finely observed and bizarre portrait of a number of people and their relationships to one another. When a woman falls overboard on a ship, she makes a promise to herself: Should she survive, she will write a book about all the people who have played a role in her life, be it large or small.

Quotes

La promesa

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The Topless Tower

On the arrival of a mysterious stranger laden with paintings, Leandro finds his quiet life disrupted instantly and mysteriously. He awakens locked in a windowless room in a topless tower, the subject of one of the stranger’s eerie paintings. His childish voice draws the reader into a mythical world full of imaginary beings.

RIGHTS

ORIGINAL EDITIONS AND RIGHTS SOLD

NOVEL
The Topless Tower (“La torre sin fin”)
Buenos Aires: Sudamericana 2007, 124 p.
Turkey: Nebula (Paloma) 2018 · UK: Hesperus Press 2010; Calque Press 2023

NOUVELLE
The Promise (“La promesa”)
Buenos Aires: Sudamericana 2011, 144 p.
Albania: Dituria · France: Des Femmes 2017 · Italy: La Nuova Frontiera 2013 · Norway: Meteor Forlag · Portugal: Antígona 2023 · Spain: Lumen 2023 · Turkey: Notos Kitap 2022 · USA: City Lights 2019 (Spanish and English world rights)

SHORT PROSE (SELECTION)
Nueve perros (in: “Cuentos completos”, Vol. 2, Buenos Aires: Emecé, 1999)
USA: Vista Higher Learning 2022

El dibujo del tiempo
Spain: Lumen 2013; 2023

Las repeticiones y otros relatos inéditos
Buenos Aires: Sudamericana 2006, 296 p.
France: Des Femmes 2023
Romania: Univers

La furia y otros cuentos
Buenos Aires: Sudamericana 2006, 275 p.
Brazil: Companhia das Letras 2019 · China: Dook Media · Germany: Suhrkamp 1992 · Portugal: Antígona 2021 · Romania: Univers 2015 · Spain: Alianza 1982; Lumen 2023

Invenciones del recuerdo
Buenos Aires: Sudamericana 2006, 183 p.
France: Des Femmes 2021

Autobiografía de Irene
Buenos Aires: Sudamericana 2008, 192 p.
China: Dook Media · Italy: Sellerio 2000 · Spain: Lumen 2023

Ejércitos de la oscuridad
Buenos Aires: Sudamericana 2008, 185 p.
Spain: Lumen 2023

Cuentos completos”, Vol. 2
Buenos Aires: Emecé 1999, 419 p.

Cuentos completos, Vol. 1
Buenos Aires: Emecé 1999, 496 p.

Cornelia frente al espejo
Buenos Aires: Lumen 1988, 262 p.
Spain: Tusquets Editores 2002; Lumen 2023
Feature film, 2012: nominated for 5 Awards by the Academia de las Artes y Ciencias Cinematográficas de la Argentina (incl. Best Screenplay – Adapted)

The Days of the Night (“Los días de la noche”)
Buenos Aires: Sudamericana 1970; Lumen 2023, 232 p.
Italy: Enaudi 1976 · Portugal: Edições da Snob 2022 · Spain: Alianza 1984; Lumen 2023

Las invitadas
Buenos Aires: 1961, Lumen 2016, 320 p.
Brazil: Companhia das Letras 2022 · China: Dook Media · Portugal: Antígona 2022 · Slovenia: LUD 2018

Where There´s Love, There´s Hate (“Los que aman odian”)
(novella with Adolfo Bioy Casares)
Buenos Aires: Emecé 1946, 2005, 2013, 2016, 152 p.
Brasil: Oficina do Livro 2009 · German: Manesse 2010 · Greece: Alexandria 1994 · France: Christian Bourgois 1998, Cambourakis 2022 · Italy: Einaudi 1988; Sur 2019 · Romania: RAO 2020 · Russia: Azbuka 2000 · Spain: Tusquets (Planeta) 1989 · USA: Melville 2013

Forgotten Journey (“Viaje olvidado”)
Buenos Aires: Sur 1937; Emecé 2005, 2025, 152 p.
USA: City Lights 2019 (Spanish and English world rights)

ANTHOLOGIES
France: Gallimard 1974, 1999 · Italy: Einaudi 1973, Editori Riuniti 1989, La Nuova Frontiera 2010 · Poland: Instytut Książki 2022 · Romania: Univers · USA: New York Review of Books 2015

Swedish Anthology:
Amazing stories from Hispanoamerica
(“Irene’s Autobiography & Other Short Stories”)
Sweden: Komet 2019

Polish Anthology:
Amazing stories from Hispanoamerica
(“Opowiesci niesamowite z Hispanoameryki”)
(“La Expiación”, “Éxodo”, “Celestina”)
Poland: Panstowy Instytut Wydawniczy 2022

Spanish Anthology:
Essential stories of the 20th century in Latin America
(“Cuentos imprescindibles del siglo XX de América Latina”)
(“La Expiación”)
Spain: Alma Editorial 2025

English Anthology:
Short Diary Fiction. A New Global Anthology
(“El diario de Porfiria Bernal: Relato de Miss Antonia Fielding”)
UK: Bloomsbury 2025

FOR CHILDREN
El caballo alado
Buenos Aires: Ediciones De La Flor 1996
Italy: Mondadori 2000

La naranja maravillosa
Buenos Aires: Sudamericana 2006, 118 p.
Italy: Mondadori 2001

Ana María Shua

SB — Thu, 29 Oct 2020 15:32:32 +0000

Premio Iberoamericano Juan José Arreola 2016Ana María Shua

Argentina

Ana María Shua was born in Buenos Aires in 1951. She studied literature at the University of Buenos Aires and has been working in advertising and as a journalist. Shua’s children’s books have been a great success in Latin America, Spain, and Korea and she is regarded as the Queen of Microfiction in the Spanish speaking world. Important literary awards are the recognition of her work. In 2016 she was awarded the first Premio Iberoamericano Juan José Arreola in the category of mini-fiction, and the president of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, Estela de Carlotto, awarded Ana María Shua the Democracy in Literature Prize. In 2022 she became Honorary Fellow Member of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese. In 2025, Shua has been named Doctor Honoris Causa by the University of Cuyo (Argentina).

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The Passover Pet Surprise / La gran sorpresa de Pésaj

A multicultural addition to the Passover picture book canon, this sweet story explores the meaning of freedom for the Jewish people–and their pets!

This Passover, Jordanita’s family is leaving their Miami apartment and flying to Argentina to spend the holiday with their cousin. Visiting their cousin is the best, since he not only has a giant yard—he also has two dogs, a cat, two turtles, and two parrots called Tic and Toc! But when Jordanita hears the Passover story this year, she can’t help but notice that Tic and Toc are in a cage. If the point of Passover is to celebrate freedom, shouldn’t that apply to all creatures?

In The Passover Pet Surprise / La gran sorpresa de Pésaj, celebrated Jewish Argentine author Ana María Shua explores the nature of freedom and the love of family, perfectly paired with the gentle humor of Spanish illustrator Angeles Ruiz’s lively illustrations.

Quotes

The Passover Pet Surprise / La gran sorpresa de Pésaj

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Broken Body

Bodies that conceive. Bodies that grow. Bodies that age. Bodies that break and heal. Bodies we do not forget. Bodies that must be cared for and that care. Our bodies and their bodies.
Moving in its honesty, beautiful in its closeness, unique in its humor, Ana María Shua’s Broken Body (“El cuerpo roto”) is also remembered and recreated body. Astonishment and agitation in discovery; dignity and effort in overcoming; pain and love in mourning; each coexist with a lucid gaze and a companionate literature, where the symptom, the wound, or the scar is a hymn to life.

Quotes

Broken Body

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Daughter

Is it possible for a mother, or a father, to accept that the own daughter is a bad person? This is the great theme of the new novel by Ana Maria Shua, Daughter (“Hija”). Natalia is a beautiful girl with a magical, destructive smile. Through her mother’s eyes, the reader will perceive certain disturbing signals. And yet how can you accuse such a small girl of selfishness, or manipulation? It is obvious that the little girl had nothing to do with the bullying of a sick classmate. Nor the death of her grandfather.

When the couple separate, the mother concentrates all her energy to prevent her daughter feel guilty unfairly. But Natalia does not feel guilty of anything, and she does not mind running over anyone who stands in her way. Interwoven with the story, Shua (herself the mother of three daughters), includes passages from her own diary, sharing her fears and desires as the novel matures.

What does one know about his own children? Are parents guilty of everything their children become? These are some of the dilemmas which this novel poses and does not intend to solve.

Quotes

Daughter

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Mister Pluf. My Friend From Another Planet

Mister Pluf comes from Venus and is looking for work on planet Earth. At first, he seems to be doing well, but whenever people realise just how different he is, they turn him away. Until an author gives him a place in a new book.

Mister Pluf. My Friend From Another Planet (“El Señor Pluf. Mi Amigo De Otro Planeta”) is a picture book that encourages us to reflect on the differences that make us unique, and shows us how much we are losing by refusing to embrace those who are different.

Suitable for readers aged 4 and up.

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The Land of Lost Fears

Fears have always been an important part of a child’s world. Many people say it is essential not to have them, that we must overcome them in order to face life. In The Land of Lost Fears (“El país de los miedos perdidos”), Ana María Shua and Sebastián Dufour offer a critical yet thoughtful perspective, emphasising the importance of these fears because, were they not to exist, we would face all manner of dangers. A different perspective, portrayed through the story of Lisandro, the boy who is afraid of being bitten by dogs, and Sebastián Dufour’s exquisite illustrations, which help children to accept their deepest fears and understand the importance of being able to face them.

Suitable for readers aged 7 and up.

Quotes

The Land of Lost Fears

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The Weight of Temptation

Shua’s novel, The Weight of Temptation (El peso de la tentación), is set in the near future and takes on the ever-expanding cult of the body-beautiful and dieting that is gripping the industrialised world.

The life of the 43 year-old main character, Marina, seems to be running smoothly. Nobody suspects that her every waking thought is focused on her next meal, turning daily life into a torment. From her childhood onwards, her relationship with food has been manipulated. On the one hand, her mother has always badgered her to eat well and plenty, but at the same time she wants to have a slim and willowy daughter. By the time she gets married, she has tried out every imaginable form of dieting and therapy. When she has to give up the diet pills for medical reasons, she loses control and puts on more than 30 kilos.

Her husband Tomás loves her all the same, but he has lost his sexual desire for her. So Marina decides to resort to a last-ditch solution: she scrapes together all of her money and goes to the private slimming institute Las Espigas, in full knowledge that she will have to spend at least three months in the institute, fully isolated from the outside world. The methods of the charismatic head of the institute – known to all only as the Professor – are somewhat questionable and do not always respect his patients’ dignity. The educational measures include clamping solitary confinement or torture with electric shocks.

As Marina’s release date approaches, the youngsters attempt a rebellion, and the power relations in the institute are set to be turned upside-down…

In this novel, Shua exposes the background to a vicious circle of hunger and obsessive slimming, to which increasing numbers of people are falling victim, and does so forcefully, with a sense of humour and a good deal of empathy. Here, hunger also stands for unfulfilled wishes, against the backdrop of the question of how free people are, or the extent to which they subjugate themselves to authority or orders.

Quotes

The Weight of Temptation

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Circus Freaks

In her latest volume of microfiction, Circus Freaks (“Fenómenos de circo”), Ana María Shua toys with the fascination of dissimilar sensations like melancholy and astonishment, sadness and enchantment, playing to the readers’ most innate fears and hopes. With her characteristic large doses of irony and imagination, in stories of famous circus artists and events based on true facts Shua combines the world’s paradoxes with the preciseness of language that renders her stories so unique.

Quotes

Circus Freaks

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I am a Patient

Shua’s novels are a humorous, often sarcastic portrait of the Argentinian society. Her first novel I am a Patient or I am patient (“Soy paciente”) describes the daily life in hospital, the miserable standards of health care, and in a sarcastic, ironical way, illustrates the bureaucracy which forces a helpless person to be a patient patient, an exhilarating allegory […]. A terrific first novel. (Kirkus, 1997). Two of her novels have been made into films, and some of her stories were translated into German, French, English and Dutch.

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The Average Argentinian Husband // The Book of Memories // Death as a Side-Effect

In 1991 followed the ironic portrait of the Argentinian husband, The Average Argentinian Husband (“El marido argentino promedio”) which immediately became a bestseller. The Jewish emigration into the promising New World is the theme of The Book of Memories (“El libro de los recuerdos”), Shua’s third novel, written with a grant from the Guggenheim Foundation. Buenos Aires is also the scenery of Shua’s latest novel Death as a Side-Effect (“La muerte como efecto secundario”), in the year 2002 plus x: However oppressive the scenario may seem, Ana María Shua has nevertheless succeeded in writing an engaging sensitively observed novel about human relationships, about the difficulty of forgiving and the opportunity it offers. With great tenderness the author makes a first-class, vehement, literary plea for the dignity of man as inviolable, always, even in the year 2002 plus x. A shockingly topical book.

Quotes

The Average Argentinian Husband // The Book of Memories // Death as a Side-Effect

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The War

Ana María Shua is the greatest source of micro-stories in our language. Her work is a first-class literary exploration that has modified our understanding of brevity. The challenge of a book like The War (“La Guerra”) is to tackle one of the most terrible and complex episodes of humanity through minimal writing. War has altered geographies and peoples to the point of destruction. Literature has always borne witness to this. Thus, warriors, weapons, strategies, battlefields, historical milestones, heroes, and heroines parade through its pages. Everything forms part of this art of war, formed by someone who has shown herself to be the leading fighter for the kingdom of nuance, silence, ellipsis, the poetic: the marshal of a genre.

RIGHTS

NOVELS
Daughter (“Hija”)
Buenos Aires: Emecé/Planeta 2016. 250 p.
Kuwait: Alsurra · Mexico: Axial 2017 · USA: Literal 2020

The Weight of Temptation (“El peso de la tentación”)
Buenos Aires: Emecé/Planeta, 2007, 266 p.
Filmrights under Option
Serbia: Laguna · USA: Nebraska Press 2012

Death as a Side-Effect (“La muerte como efecto secundario”)
Buenos Aires: Sudamericana 1997, Emecé/Planeta 2008, 260 p.
Selected by the Congreso de la Lengua Española as one of the one hundred best Latin American novels published in the last twenty-five years.
Brazil: Globo 2004 · France: Folies d’Encre 2013 · Spain: Sudamericana 2002 · USA: Nebraska Press 2010

The Book of Memories (“El libro de los recuerdos”)
Buenos Aires: Sudamericana 1994, 200 p.
Italy: Poiesis 2011 · Macedonia: Antolog 2014 · USA: New Mexico Press 1998

I Am Patient (“Soy paciente”)
Buenos Aires: Losada 1980; Sudamericana 1996, Emecé/Planeta 2010, 134 p.
France: Folies d’encre 2014 · Italy: Giunti 1997 · USA: Latin American Literary Review Press 1997

The Average Argentinian Husband (“El marido argentino promedio”)
Buenos Aires: Sudamericana 1992, 215 p.

Laurita’s Love Affairs (“Los amores de Laurita”)
Buenos Aires: Sudamericana 1984, 196 p.
Film directed by Antonio Ottone 1986
Germany: Peter Hammer 1992, dtv pb 1995 · Italy: Semilla

SHORT PROSE (SELECTION)
Broken Body (“El cuerpo roto”)
Madrid: Páginas de Espuma 2025, 192 p.

Against Time (“Contra el tiempo”)
Madrid: Páginas de Espuma 2013, 240 p.

Watch Out, There’s Cheating. Tales From Around the World About Cheating and Cheaters (“Cuidado que hay trampa. Cuentos del mundo sobre trampas y tramposos”)
Buenos Aires: Sudamericana 2009, 92 p.

May You Have an Interesting Life (“Que tengas una vida interesante”)
Buenos Aires: Emecé/Planeta 2009, 298 p.
Greece: Vakxikon Media 2022

The Book of Women (“El libro de las mujeres”)
Buenos Aires: Alfaguara 2005, 531 p.
USA: Literal

History of a Tale (“Historia de un cuento”)
Buenos Aires: Sudamericana 1998, 144 p.
Brazil: Kumon (school book, Spanish Language)

Jewish Folk Wisdom (“Sabiduría popular judía”)
Córdoba: Ameghino 1997, 238 p.
Brazil: Relume Dumará 2005

Travelling Is a Way of Meeting People (“Viajando se conoce gente”)
Buenos Aires: Sudamericana 1988, 142 p.

Days Fishing (“Los días de pesca”)
Buenos Aires: Corregidor, 1981, 173 p.

MICRO-FICTION
The War (“La guerra”)
Madrid: Páginas de Espuma 2019, 168 p.
English sample translation available
Denmark: Vivece Tallgren · Serbia: Cultural Center of Novi Sad 2024

Circus Freaks (“Fenómenos de circo”)
Buenos Aires: Emecé/Planeta 2011, 190 p.
Canada: InMediasRes · Germany: dtv (Excerpt) · Slovenia: Malinc 2017 · Spain: Páginas de Espuma 2011 · USA: Hanging Loose Press 2012

Hunters of Letters. Collected Mini-Fiction (“Cazadores de letras. Minificción reunida”)
Madrid: Páginas de Espuma 2009, 870 p. (worldwide exc. Argentina)
Selection:
Argentina: Planeta · Iceland: Dimma · Indonesia: Marjin Kiri 2018 · Taiwan: Suncolor 2012 (Incl. Hongkong & Macau) · USA: University of Nebraska Press/Bison Books 2009

Ghost Season (“Temporada de fantasmas”)
Madrid: Páginas de Espuma 2004, 132 p.
Argentina: Páginas de Espuma 2015 · France: Cataplum 2010

Botany of Chaos (“Botánica del caos”)
Buenos Aires: Sudamericana 2000, 245 p.
France: equi-librio 2008, Folies d’Encre 2014 · Italy: Oèdipus 2013

House of Geishas (“Casa de geishas”)
Buenos Aires: Sudamericana 1992, 245 p.
English translation available
Mexico: Posdata 2011 · Spain: Thule Ediciones 2007 · USA: Literal

The Dreamer (“La sueñera”)
Buenos Aires: Minotauro 1984, Alfaguara 1996, Emecé/Planeta 2006
Greece: Apopeira 2015 · Italy: Pièdimosca 2023

POETRY
They Aren’t Haikus (“No son haikus”)
Buenos Aires: Emecé/Planeta 2024, 144 p.
Complete English translation available

PARTICIPATION IN ANTHOLOGIES
Mikronovellernas universum (Microstories)
Excerpts from: “Cómo escribir un microrrelato”, (2017);
Micro stories from: “Fenómenos de circo” (2011), “Temporada de fantasmas” (2004), “Casa de Geishas” (1992), “La sueñera” (1984)
Sweden: Karavan 4/2023 (p.52-65)

Microrrelatos
Selection from: “Cómo escribir un microrrelato”, (2017);
Micro stories from: ““Temporada de fantasmas” (2004), “Fenómenos de circo” (2011), “Casa de Geishas” (1992), “La sueñera” (1984)
Ed. Viveca Tallgren
Sweden: Forlaget Apuleius Aesel 2023

Vida de perros (in: “Que tengas una vida interesante”)
Slovakia: DoSlov 2023
(in: Verzia 02/2023 “Argentinas, Argentinas, Argentinas”)

Vamos a leer
German: dtv 2018
(Excerpt of Fenómenos de circo)

Like a Good Mother (“Como una Buena Madre”)
German: Unionsverlag 2018, 30th anniversary of LiBeraturpreis
Poland : Wielka Litera 2023
(in: Mistrzowie opowieści. O kobietach – Short story collection by women authors)

An Incomplete Primer of Jewish Humour (“Abécédaire incomplet de l’humour juif”)
France: Folies d’Encre 2011

FOR CHILDREN (SELECTION)
The Passover Pet Surprise / La gran sorpresa de Pésaj
New York/Madrid: NorthSouth Books/Ediciones NorteSur 2026
Ill. by Ángeles Ruiz
Recommended for 4-8 years old
German: NordSüd Verlag, forthcoming Spring 2027

Mister Pluf. My Friend From Another Planet
(“El Señor Pluf. Mi Amigo De Otro Planeta”)
Buenos Aires: El Gato de Hojalata 2015, 48 p.
Ill. by Ana Luisa Stok
Recommended for over 4 years old

The Land of Lost Fears (“El país de los miedos perdidos”)
Buenos Aires: Capital Intelectual 2014, 32 p.
Ill. by Sebastián Dufour
Recommended for over 7 years old

The Tree of the Dragon Woman (“El árbol de la mujer dragón”)
Madrid: Anaya 2013, 152 p.

Latin American Legends (“Leyendas latinoamericanas”)
Buenos Aires: El Gato de Hojalata 2012, 59 p.

Gods and Heroes of Greek Mythology (“Dioses y héroes de la mitología griega”)
Buenos Aires: Alfaguara 2011, 232 p.
Portugal: Penguin Random House (Fábula) 2024

A Somewhat Strange Square (“Una plaza un poco rara”)
Buenos Aires: Alfaguara 2008, 25 p.
Ill. by Luciana Feito

Tales of the World (“Cuentos del mundo”)
Madrid: Anaya, 2008
France: Presses Universitaires de Lyon 2018

Night Fear (“Miedo de noche”)
Buenos Aires: Sudamericana 2006, 64 p.

Ani Saves the Dog Laika (“Ani salva la perra Laika”)
Buenos Aires: Sudamericana 2004, 64 p.

Snail Lends Its House (“Caracol presta su casa”)
Buenos Aires: Sudamericana 2003, 32 p.
Armenia: Librarius 2013 · Chile: Random House 2008 · USA: MacGraw Hill 2007

Jewish Tales with Ghosts and Demons (“Cuentos judíos con fantasmas y demonios”)
Mexico-City: Alfaguara 2003, Emecé/Planeta 2011, 152 p.
Selected for the prestigious White Raven catalogue 1995
Brazil: Shalom 1994 · Paraguay: Alfaguara 2011

The Door to Leave the World (“La puerta para salir del mundo”)
Buenos Aires: Sudamericana 1992, 59 p.
Armenia: Librarius 2013 · Brazil: Global 2001 · Korea: Darim 2006

The Factory of Terror (“La fábrica del terror”)
Buenos Aires: Sudamericana 1990, 1996, 114 p.
Korea: Baum Publishing 2005 · Mexico: Montena 2008 · Spain: Montena 2006

Expedition to the Amazon (“Expedición al Amazonas”)
Buenos Aires: Sudamericana 1988, 2003, 57 p.
Denmark: Viceca Tallgren 2024 · Korea: Goodmother 2005

Gonçalo M. Tavares

SB — Thu, 29 Oct 2020 18:53:16 +0000

2026 Formentor Prize for LiteraturePortugal’s third most translated authorGonçalo M. Tavares

Portugal

Gonçalo M. Tavares was born in Luanda in 1970 and teaches Theory of Science in Lisbon. Nobel Laureate José Saramago stated: »In thirty years’ time, if not before, Tavares will win the Nobel Prize, and I’m sure my prediction will come true… Tavares has no right to be writing so well at the age of 35. One feels like punching him.«Tavares has surprised his readers with the variety of books he has published since 2001 and has been awarded an impressive amount of national and international literary prizes in a very short time. In 2005 he won the José Saramago Prize for young writers under 35. In his speech at the award ceremony, Saramago commented: JERUSALÉM is a great book, and truly deserves a place among the great works of Western literature. JERUSALÉM was also awarded the Prêmio Portugal Telecom de Literatura em Língua Portuguesa 2007 and the LER/Millenium Prize. His novel LEARNING TO PRAY IN THE AGE OF TECHNOLOGY has received the prestigious Prize of the Best Foreign Book 2010 in France. This award has so far been given to authors like Salman Rushdie, Elias Canetti, Robert Musil, Orhan Pamuk, John Updike, Philip Roth, Gabriel García Márquez and Colm Tóibín. LEARNING TO PRAY was also shortlisted for the renowned French literary awards Femina Étranger Prize and Médicis Prize and won the Special Price of the Jury of the Grand Prix Littéraire du Web Cultura 2010. In 2011, Tavares received the renowned Grande Prêmio da Associação Portuguesa de Escritores, as well as the prestigious Prémio Literário Fernando Namora 2011. The author was also nominated for the renowned Dutch Europese Literatuurprijs 2013 and was on the Longlist of the Best Translated Book Award Fiction 2013. He was also nominated for the International IMPAC Dublin award 2013 and, most recently, for the Prix Jean-Monnet de Littérature Européenne 2015. MATTEO LOST HIS JOB is among the five shortlisted authors for the prestigious Prix Femina 2016 foreign fiction. According to the Portuguese Book Institute DGLAB, Gonçalo M. Tavares is the third most translated Portuguese author, after Fernando Pessoa and Eça de Queiroz, with 226 publications worldwide. Gonçalo M. Tavares has been awarded the 2026 Formentor Prize for Literature, considered a prelude to the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Gonçalo M. Tavares’ rights have been sold in 70 countries.

> SEE RIGHTS SOLD LIST

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Quotes

About the Author

Nobel Laureate José Saramago stated:
»Gonçalo M. Tavares burst onto the Portuguese literary scene armed with an utterly original imagination that broke through all the traditional imaginative boundaries. This, combined with a language entirely his own, mingling bold invention and a mastery of the colloquial, means that it would be no exaggeration to say – with no disrespect to the young Portuguese novelists writing today – that there is very much a before Gonçalo M. Tavares and an after.«

»I have read Jerusalem by Gonçalo M. Tavares. I reread it recently. I think I shall read it again soon. It is a dizzying book that forces you to open your eyes in horror at humanity and not to close them again. Reason and madness, evil at the heart of a narrative whose skilful and perfectly accessible structure I admire, which gives the impression that the very idea of morality is coming to an end. Not only every conscience, but every human body, seeks the death of the other. The character of Mylia is the only one who is free.
I also discovered Gonçalo M. Tavares’s delightful little books set in the Bairro, or how words distort reality, making the absurd conceivable and tangible.«
Annie Ernaux, Nobel Prize in Literature 2022

»Gonçalo M. Tavares is a great writer who continues the best models of the European literary tradition. He is both masterful and original. You recognise his unique perspective and style from the first page of his every novel. One of the very few writers in the world who can construct a parabolic story.«
Olga Tokarczuk, Nobel Prize in Literature 2018

»The history of humanity as told to the neighbours. In every home, a different philosophy. The history of humanity in a single neighbourhood.«
Svetlana Alexievich, Nobel Prize in Literature 2015, on The Neighbourhood

»I greatly admire Gonçalo M. Tavares’s book Learning to Pray in the Age of Technology.«
J. M . Coetzee, Nobel Prize in Literature 2003

»The greatest gift of the young Portuguese novelist Gonçalo M. Tavares is his ability, as a writer, to reduce the world to fragments and reconstruct it again as if it were his own creation. Each of his books (or set of books) is a kaleidoscope that rearranges reality for us better to observe it, making links explicit and obviating what is superfluous.«
Alberto Manguel

»The brilliant Gonçalo M. Tavares.«
Le Magazine Littéraire

»The author of a powerful and unique work, who has been celebrated by great names such as José Saramago, Alberto Manguel and Enrique Vila-Matas.«
Le Monde des Livres

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The End of the United States of America. An Epic

In The End of the United States of America. An Epic (“O Fim dos Estados Unidos da América. Epopeia”), in the middle of an American football game, a terrible plague enters the United States of America. In the midst of this is Bloom, the hero of the epic, who, like Oedipus, will meet a terrible fate but will try to save America from falling apart. Bloom gets into his car to travel across the United States in search of a solution, but also looking for his love, the Mexican La Rosa.

The two political leaders, Ted Trash, right-wing extremist and Left Wing, communist and left-wing extremist, instead of pacifying the country, fight for its separation. At a certain point, it becomes clear that the Plague only affects the poor. In some states, they are placed in ghettos. Different states adopt opposing laws. There is a division between Marxist-extremists and fascists. Tensions escalate until they lead to the Second Civil War. The country is divided in two, Homo Pobrus and Homo Ricus, genetically separated, becoming two distinct species incapable of reproducing with each other. The poor die at an average age of forty-two, while the rich live to one hundred and thirty. Bloom is rich, La Rosa is poor.

Bloom, who thought he was a natural-born American, was actually adopted by an American couple living in New York. When he receives an oracle saying that he will save America but also kill his father and mother, Bloom decides to distance himself from the parents he believes to be his real ones. What happens is that, on his journey across America to try to find the plague, he accidentally kills his real father in a car accident and sleeps with his real mother, without knowing it, at a hippie camp. Bloom finally finds La Rosa, the woman he met at the beginning of the epic. The two stay together. And La Rosa becomes pregnant. This means that the two have once again made the genes of the poor and the rich compatible.

Ted Trash and Left Wing each lead their own army, dividing the country in two. But Bloom, without realising it, saves America not from the plague but from the genetic division. It is as if Bloom and La Rosa were the new Adam and Eve, recreating a single human species.

Quotes

The End of the United States of America. An Epic

»A work that brings together pressing concerns, such as our current follies, violence and the consequences of abused power, themes also found in A Voyage to India, Joseph Walser’s Machine and Jerusalém.«
Books Magazine

»The ‘epic’ by Gonçalo M. Tavares is entitled The End of the United States of America. Why do I consider it a great book? Because it constructs anti-fictions, which we need, within its multiple and exasperated fictions; because it moves forward by sabotaging all genres, brilliantly fulfilling the mission announced in its epigraph: ‘neither prose nor poetry, quite the opposite / this epic is written in that hesitant language of the in-between / suspended between the prose that narrates and the poetry that whistles / with neither literary genre nor literary twin, neither this way nor that / may God protect us and the Divine support us.’ To sabotage genres, to sabotage narratives, to sabotage fiction: that is what this book does, as if proclaiming, ‘We can no longer endure your narratives, unbearable and irresponsible.«
António Guerreiro, Ipsilon

»Guiding his readers from chapter to chapter, warning them of pitfalls and telegraphing events to come, harping back on details that might have been missed and commenting on his characters’ behaviour, Tavares shows astonishing chutzpah and a powerful narrative skill as he unfurls his ambitious pageant.«
Alberto Manguel, Times Literary Supplement

»This is a magnificent book. I would compare it, in this century, to 20th-century books such as Karl Kraus’s The Last Days of Mankind or Robert Musil’s The Man Without Qualities. But it is not a question of affinities but of influences, as this is an entirely new book, without predecessors. The End of the United States is a book that has everything. It is a machine capable of summoning everything into itself. It is a kind of diagnosis of the contemporary world.«
António Guerreiro, during a book presentation in Lisbon

»Difficult to categorize, classic, delirious, The End of the United States of America starts from a recognizable object, the USA as the founding myth of the 20th century, and questions its transformation. What is at stake is not geography, but what remains when a country that invented a totalizing narrative loses the ability to tell its own story. (…) With its syncopated rhythm and short breaths, the text always seems on the verge of explosion. If there is a legacy of the writer that this book prolongs, it is the ability to transform catastrophe into an exercise in thought. In this instance lightly and with a good dose of humor, a freedom that contrasts with the book’s theme: a harsh criticism that highlights the fragility of democracies.«
Público

»Gonçalo M. Tavares narrates the fall of the United States in a work that is as ambitious as it is brilliant.«
Jornal de Noticias

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Mussolini’s Boots

A prose sonorously thought out and designed to be read in a hushed voice, as Gonçalo M. Tavares defines it, this is the book Mussolini’s Boots (“As Botas de Mussolini”). It is the beginning of a Fragmented History of the World (“História Fragmentada do Mundo”), which starts by analysing news from the 21st century and the memory of historical characters and facts. Its pages include Robespierre, one of the exponents of the French Revolution; Turing, a genius of detail and numbers; the hand of Hitler as a young painter and the biography of his niece, Geli Raubal, with whom the dictator is said to have fallen in love; the great fire in Tokyo in 1923 and the voice of Emperor Hirohito of Japan when, over the radio, he decreed his country’s surrender; the tragedy of the architect Frank Lloyd Wright and the follies of the juggler Joseph L. Greenstein, who wandered around the world. Greenstein, who wandered the American fairs of the 20th century; the turbulent life of Malcolm X; Enrico Fermi’s atomic reactor, linked to the atomic bomb; the high-speed tragedy of Marilyn Monroe; and the imposing finger of Tito, president of Yugoslavia; the day the Berlin Wall was erected and Nietzsche’s sanatorium; the trial of a Nazi in 2020, already 93 years old; and the high boots of Mussolini, the Italian dictator. These are flashes, small fragments, notes.

Quotes

Mussolini’s Boots / Fragmented History of the World

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Short Notes on the Orient

Bashô tells a short story of his many journeys. He is leaving for the city of Maruoka and his great friend, Hokushi, who is from Kanazawa, thought he would only accompany him for a short distance – “but ended up travelling all the way to Maruoka, unable to say goodbye”. So we have a friend who endlessly says goodbye to the other, travelling all the way on a journey that is not his own. And then I imagine the continuation of this story. Now it would be Bashô’s friend Hokushi who would have to leave for his home, and Bashô would go with him, just a few metres, just to say goodbye, but he wouldn’t be able to let go of him and would go with him all the way back to Kanazawa. Imagine a farewell like this, uninterrupted, between two humans. Two humans who could spend a lifetime saying goodbye to each other like this, with such ceremony and delicacy.

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Dictionary of Artists

This Dictionary of Artists (“Dicionário de Artistas”), this Museum, starts from a detail, a tiny fragment, or the very central core of an artist’s work, and from there the text moves somewhere else. In the way that an animal that is hungry leaves its nest to go to a place where it senses food, thus the text starts its journey. But there is nothing didactic or explanatory about it, the texts in this Dictionary are autonomous beings that go out into the streets free and completely alone after midnight.

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The Middle Bone

The Middle Bone (“O Osso do Meio”) forms part of the universe of The Kingdom (“O Reino”), next in the series following Klaus Klump: A Man (“Um homem: Klaus Klump“), Joseph Walser’s Machine (“A Máquina de Joseph Walser”), Jerusalem, and Learning to Pray in the Age of Technology (“Aprender a rezar na Era da Técnica”). Perhaps a tone, books with tones (colours, aggression, speed) rather than literary genres. A tone such as this: how does evil, excitement, passivity and violence flow through the many soils of the earth? Taking place in a post-war period, in a movement of collective hangover. It is a book where the middle is there, right at the beginning, and there it remains until the end. Three men and a woman caught up in a point of their violent, (almost) happy lives. Happiness has many variations and some are not at all benign. Kahnnak, Albert Mulder, Maria Llurbai, Vassliss Rania: three men and a woman. A harsh and sad book.

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Plague Diary

Tavares has been writing a daily column for the renowned Portuguese newspaper Expresso tracking the COVID-19 pandemic, entitled Plague Diary (“Diário da Peste”). The first entry in Englishtranslation by Daniel Hahn went online at Words Without Borders. Several texts have been published at: Granta, Bookanista, PEN Transmissions, Asymptote, Politics/Letters, Onomatomania, The Massachusetts Reviews, Scroll, The White Review, and TLS. A chronological survey and access to the English translations can be found here: > danielhahn.co.uk. Plague Diary is also available in Argentina, Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Greece, India, Italy, The Netherlands, Peru, and Venezuela.

First book rights have been sold in Greece, Spain and for Romanian language.

Quotes

Plague Diary

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In America, Said Jonathan

In America, Said Jonathan (“Na América, Disse Jonathan”) is a book that relates a trip through the United States of America. During this trip, the protagonist writes a diary that follows his real and imaginary adventures. It is a ctional diary. The author brings a portrait of Kafka to the United States of America and puts it in various places throughout the country, including the supermarket shelves of 7-Eleven convenience stores. Kafka’s portrait seems to disturb a country the size of the United States of America. As if Kafka‘s face were asking uncomfortable questions of this great country.

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Mythologies

Mythologies (“Mitologias”), is one of the most important literary universes of Gonçalo M. Tavares. This world – which is now beginning to be published – blends men, machines, animals, and objects in a 21st Century mythology that can be read in any order of entry. It is a return to the traditional Once Upon a Time format set in a mythical time, which mixes dates and exchanges narrative orders in a space without geographic location. There is a suspension of normal physical laws, a different logic, other narrative conventions, in a zone of freedom that deals with evil, human temptations and their disorders and fears. Five children go through this world and just want what everyone wants: to survive as they grow.

Quotes

Mythologies

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The Devil

The Devil (“O Diabo”) is the story of the Devil who sits wellbehaved at the table but who is quickly led astray by children. Mythologies is a universe of fiction by Gonçalo M. Tavares, the result of a five-year creative process, a unique work of great literary richness and brilliance, using the narrative tradition of orality and fantasy, in which the author places humankind and history in a mythological dimension that he distorts, to show and explore more fully what is human nature. It is a return to ‘Once Upon a Time’ set in a mythical time, mixing dates and swapping narrative orders, in a space without geographical location.

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Five Children, Five Rats

In the middle of the forest, five children lost. Or four. Because the youngest of the sisters got lost from those who were already lost. The children find a man-with-the-evil-eye, but he‘s good. They also encounter Speed, which is a dangerous element that makes men mad. There is a Train that does not like humans and a man who cannot stop gawping at the world. There is a tiny church where a body can barely fit, but this body has room to pray. And there are those who come out cured of very small spaces. In Five Children, Five Rats (“Cinco Meninos, Cinco Ratos”) we are in a mythological narrative, and machines and animals have since long ceased to be mere helpers or friends. There are very hungry machines.

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The Woman-Without-a-Head and the Man-With-the-Evil-Eye

In The Woman-Without-a-Head and the Man-With-the-Evil-Eye (“A Mulher Sem-Cabeça e o Homem-do-Mau-Olhado”), Gonçalo M. Tavares repositions mankind and history within a mythological dimension, which he distorts in order to clarify, and through which, using the narrative universe of orality and fantasy, he brilliantly explores the essence of human nature. A woman’s head is beaten off, but she can still walk upright. A man with an evil eye cannot look at his bride. Five children of the king are devoured by a machine. A famous neurologist wants to give a poor madman a smile. And a group of downtrodden wretches builds a flying machine to flee before the revolution. If Kafka had rewritten Ovid’s “Metamorphoses”, this book would have been the result.

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Encyclopaedia // Short Notes on Literature-Bloom

The effort to distinguish various forms of knowledge production has been a constant occupation of Tavares; in particular distinguishing independent science from literature, the main theme of the last part of Encyclopaedia (“Encyclopédia”), entitled Short Notes on Literature-Bloom (“Breves Notas sobre a Literatura-Bloom”). Science, according to Tavares, is focussed on all that can be repeated; literature, on everything that is unrepeatable. Science was created to resolve paradoxes and contradictions; literature, on the contrary, requires “specialists in mystery”. But not mysteries for detectives, Tavares points out, not those mysteries that end with the discovery of the murderer: to study mystery means increasing, not decreasing it, so that at the end of Literature-Bloom the reader knows less facts than he did before. This paradoxical logic, this wild arithmetic, is one of the central issues of Tavares poetic and literary language: to domestication, it counters with estrangement; to the desire to control, the ethics of dispossession.

(Borja Bagunyà)

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His Excellency, The Circumlucologist

His Excellency, The Circumlucologist (“O Torcicologologista, Excelência”) is a work of fiction: ironic and capable of making one burst out in laughter, but also a painful book, composed of two very different parts. The first, wherein disenchantment intersects with corrosive humor, is composed of fictional dialogues between two characters, the Excellencies, created and developed over a few years by Gonçalo M. Tavares in the pages of a newspaper. Your Excellency speaks to Your Excellency, and–in the middle of the absurdity that is existence and the attempt to understand it–the two discourse on good and evil, revolutions, boredom, dance and laziness, big questions and minor mishaps, leaps forward and major downfalls. Continuous irony, humor, and sabotage of thought and language progress in the dialogue between these two curious Excellencies, characters of impeccable manners and a quick, comical wit.

The second part of O Torcicologologista, Excelência takes the reader to commotion of the city, to the small gestures and great tragedies that there reside. An accelerated tragedy in which an abrupt zoom into and quick glance at humanity brings a collective character to the foreground: the city, the modern city, with its illnesses, its obsessions, and, sometimes, its hopes.

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A Girl is Lost in Her Century, Looking for Her Father

A Girl is Lost in Her Century, Looking for Her Father (“Uma Menina Está Perdida no seu Século à Procura do Pai”) tells the story of Hanna, a 12-year-old girl with Down’s syndrome. Together with Marius, a man who seems to be hiding from something, she embarks on a journey through cities haunted by traces of World War II. Once more, Tavares takes his readers to a dismal world that poses existential questions.

Quotes

A Girl is Lost in Her Century Looking for Her Father

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Old People Want to Live Too

The Greek myth of the tragedy Alceste, by the playwright Euripides, is revived in Old People Want to Live Too (“Os Velhos Também Querem Viver”). In this novel-poem, Gonçalo M. Tavares stages the drama in contemporary Sarajevo and discusses issues such as death, love, sacrifice, the value of thousands of lives, and the value of just one.

Quotes

Old People Want to Live Too

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Atlas of the Body and the Imagination

Atlas of the Body and the Imagination (“Atlas do corpo e da imaginação”) is a multilayered essay that revolves around literature and art, addressing topics like fiction, identity, technology and desire. With a firm hand and lucid spirit, Tavares guides us around the labyrinthine world we live in, revisiting the work of some of the most important contemporary thinkers, among them Wittgenstein, Hannah Arendt and Nietzsche.

Please find here the trailer of the Portuguese edition: > Atlas do corpo e da imaginação Booktrailer

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A Voyage to India

Gonçalo M. Tavares’ novel A Voyage to India (“Uma Viagem à Índia”) is a mental journey as well as a physical one. Written in easily accessible language, which stands in stark contrast to its epic form inspired by The Lusiads, A Voyage to India relates the experiences Bloom has on his way to India and back.

Quotes

A Voyage to India

»An ambitious book of dazzling and beautiful writing, a true literary triumph that confirms him, if there had been any doubts, as the great Portuguese writer of the 21st century.«
José Mário Silva, Expresso

»A book for eternity.«
JL

»With great beauty and skill, Tavares narrates a fantastic story. One of the most striking books in recent European literature.«
Le Monde

»It’s a journey, an anti-epos, and an extraordinary book. I’m convinced that within a hundred years there will still be doctoral theses about its passages and fragments. A Voyage to India is a book that will doubtlessly mark not only the history of Portuguese literature but also that of European culture.«
RTP

»The literature of Gonçalo M. Tavares is radical, and does not allow us to remain indifferent. Tavares is a master in the art of shocking the reader.«
José Castello, Ípsilon

»One of the most creative contemporary Portuguese writers.«
Moacyr Scliar, VEJA

»Gonçalo M. Tavares has displayed surprising and measureless skill. This writer will certainly be spoken of by the Swedish committee in a few years’ time.«
Magazine Arte

»He’s a born genius!«
GLAMOUR, Italy

»Irony and talent, an unbelievable author.«
COURRIER INTERNATIONAL

»Tavares plays with these, and everything else, in clever and unexpected ways, to create an unusual serious-comic work that is both classic in feel and yet completely modern. Since this 400-page work can pass both as fiction and as poetry, I wonder if it stands a chance to be the first work to make the longlists in both categories in next year’s Best Translated Book Award.«
the complete review M.A.Orthofer

»The brilliant Tavares, who invented the Neighbourhood where the strangest and yet least ostentatious gentlemen a Creator could possibly imagine live, is a man who loves pineapple juice and carries written on his forehead everything he has written so far and everything he will write in the future. For years I’ve suspected that he himself lives in the Neighbourhood.«
Enrique Vila-Matas

»Besides being elegant, intriguing and funny, it certainly makes you think.«
Le Temps

»Sparklingly funny.«
Le Magazine Littéraire

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The Neighbourhood

The Neighbourhood (“O Bairro”) describes a utopian neighbourhood whose characters share the names of great artists and writers, almost a literary version of Asterix’s village.

From an impressive list of works published in swift succession which surprise readers by their philosophical mind quizzes, diffidently and ironically told events and broad stylistic variations, choice is made here of a number in which the main protagonist is a “Senhor”: Mr Valéry and Logic (”O Senhor Valéry e a Lógica“) embraces 25 short, playfully-philosophical stories about Mr. Valéry, who is short but tries hard to adapt to his surroundings, more or less successfully. With apparent childlike naivety he upsets the rules of logic and reason. For example, he jumps up and down in order to be as tall as his fellow men, declaring: I am as tall as tall people, only for a shorter while.

Mr Henri and the Encyclopaedia (”O Senhor Henri e a Enciclopédia“), a close relative of Mr. Valéry’s, is a bit more egocentric and conceited and likes to dabble in paradoxical matters and linguistic games, besides being very partial to absinthe. Mister Henri says … it’s true that if a man mixes absinthe with reality it makes for a better reality … yet it’s also the case that if a man mixes absinthe with reality it makes for a worse reality …

Mr Swedenborg and the Geometrical Investigations (”O Senhor Swedenborg e as Investigações Geométricas“), the latest resident in the writer’s quarter, is based on a Swedish scientist, theologian and mystic who, in the eighteenth century, wrote a large amount of fiction in Latin. Tavares’ Swedenborg uses the lectures that his colleagues and the people living in his neighbourhood give, to help him think through and carry out his geometric research. His reflections on memory, the mirror, seduction, desire, death and dozens of other things, are acute observations on life, always from a geometric and logical perspective and written in the familiar and jocular tone of the Senhores.

And other gentlemen, neighbours in a fictional writers´quarter, are introduced in book form such as Mr. Brecht, Mr. Juarroz, Mr. Calvino, Mr. Walser, Mr. Kraus and Mr. Eliot.

Quotes

The Neighbourhood

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The Kingdom

In a series which the author calls The Kingdom (“O Reino”), Tavares has published four novels which – this time in a less playful manner – address the topic of the essence of human existence.

Just like Walser’s dark notebooks, Gonçalo M. Tavares’ Black Books continue to give their version of the world we live in, […] of individual conscience, and the fragility of a human being in the play of existential forces, and the indifference or alienation of the individual. Joseph Walser’s Machine (“A Máquina de Joseph Walser”), following Klaus Klump: A Man (“Um Homem: Klaus Klump”), is constructed as an attempt at apprehending the essence of humanity, drawing on material with the soul of a frighteningly rational world.

Quotes

The Kingdom

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Jerusalém

In Jerusalém Ernst Spengler finds himself alone in the night of the 29th of May. He is about to throw himself out of the window. Suddenly the phone rings. Change of scene: The thirty-year-old Mylia is in her apartment and suffering great pain. She is terminally ill. She leaves the flat to go to a church. Ever since the war ended, Hinnerek Obst can not go out into the street without fear. For his eerie guise he is taken to be a murderer. He too is roaming the streets this night. Theodor Busbeck, doctor, historian and ex-husband of Mylia likewise leaves his apartment at 3 am in the morning in search of a prostitute. Mylia had one day turned up at his surgery and said I am schizophrenically mad. Would you like to cure me? The two had married. Later, however, Theodor left his wife in a psychiatric clinic. For years he had worked on developing a mathematical formula to foresee future crimes in the history of mankind.

In a clear and objective language, this book tells a strange and disconcerting story. It seems as though a secret force is leading the individual characters to their encounter in this particular night. A world coined by violence, fear, pain and insanity is evoked. The author succeeds in combining an exceedingly attention-grabbing story full of surprising contemplations on human nature with the diverse mechanisms of the exertion of power.

Jerusalém has been selected for the Portuguese edition of “1001 books to read before dying – a chronological guide to the most important novels of all times”. The novel appears alongside works by Philip Roth and John Banville.

Quotes

Jerusalém

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Matteo Lost His Job

In his novel Matteo Lost His Job (“Matteo Perdeu o Emprego”), Tavares explores the course of his protagonist’s destiny. Matteo answers an advertisement for a job and the woman who interviews him has a peculiar characteristic: she has no arms. His duty will be to accompany her and do everything that she cannot do. He takes the job because it is the first offer he’s received in several months, but he doesn’t like it and leaves it. He spends a few more months unemployed until he responds to a new ad. The man he meets has no arms.

Quotes

Matteo Lost His Job

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Stories by Mister Valéry

In The Shoes. Stories by Mister Valéry (“Os Sapatos. Histórias do Senhor Valéry”) Mr. Valéry walks in the street with a white shoe on his left foot and a black shoe on his right foot. Sometimes it’s the other way around. But he is never wrong. He gets irritated when people tell him that he has mixed up his shoes. He then switches his shoes, but receives the same reaction. He gets even more irritated. According to his logic, one of these two situations has to be right for the other to be wrong, since they are inverse. He decides he is indifferent to the subject, because if they say both situations are wrong, it is because they are both right. In this unusual work for children, Gonçalo M. Tavares explores the limits of logic and philosophical principles in a creative and entertaining way.

For Mr. Valéry, holidays are the times when no one can require you to make decisions. The difficult thing is to find the ideal house where he can rest. In an attempt to discover the best place, in The Holiday House. Stories by Mister Valéry (“A Casa de Férias. Histórias do Senhor Valéry”) Mr. Valéry imagines different houses, which by their specific but always unusual structure can offer him the rest he deserves. However, his imagination does not stop working and surprises us with ever more incredible propositions, revealing his extraordinary power.

In The Friends. Stories by Mister Valéry (“Os Amigos. Histórias do Senhor Valéry”), Mr. Valéry is small but jumps a lot, so he explains that he is “like tall people but only for a short time.” But “if tall people jumped, he would never reach them vertically” and, persistent in his learning, he abandons the exercise and begins new experiments: first a bench, then a bench with wheels, even thinking about how to “freeze a jump”. “When concentrating, Mr Valéry could actually see the tops of the heads of people who were much taller than him,” but with the vision from above “he had difficulty remembering the faces of the people he met. “With height, Mr. Valéry lost friends.”So finally he decides to be tall only in his head.

In The Two Sides. Stories by Mister Valéry (“Os Dois Lados. Histórias do Senhor Valéry”), Mr Valéry has a problem to solve: how to always be on the right side of the world? Mr Valéry’s dilemma calls for rules, and his steps in seeking this knowledge show us the absurdity of a mental system, touching us in our awareness of the absurdities that we all, at some point, raise.

Developing the theory that the world has two sides, “the right and the left,” Mr Valéry implements a disciplined and rigorous methodology: he divides his house into two parts and “only touches the things that were on his left with the left hand and the things on his right hand with his right hand”. Furthermore, in order never to deceive himself in rigorously always using the “right” hand, even when lying on his back, he painted “the whole left side of the house, including every object, in blue” and the other side in red. But so as to make no mistake, Mr. Valéry had another great trick: his left hand was also painted blue and his right hand red.

AWARDS

INTERNATIONAL AWARDS
Formentor Prize for Literature 2026 (Spain)
Prix Laure Bataillon 2021 (France, French translation of The Neighbourhood)
Bellas Artes Prize for the Best Translation MARGARITA MICHELENA 2019 (Mexico, with A Girl is Lost in Her Century Looking for Her Father)
University of Lisbon Prize 2019 (for his body of work)
Prémio Roménia – Literatura Sem Fronteiras 2018 (for his body of work)
Vergílio Ferreira Prize 2017 (Portugal)
Prémio Tabula Rasa 2015 (Portugal, with A Girl Is Lost in Her Century Looking for Her Father)
Radoje Tatić Translation Award 2014 (Croatia, with Histórias falsas)
Prix Littéraire Européen 2011, Étudiants Francophones (France, with Mr Kraus and Politics)
Special Price of the Jury of the Grand Prix Littéraire du Web Cultura 2010 (France)
Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger 2010 (France); This award has already been given to authors like Salmon Rushdie, Elias Canetti, Robert Musil, Orhan Pamuk, John Updike, Philip Roth, Gabriel García Márquez and Colm Tóibín, among others.
Belgrad Poetry Award 2009 (Serbia)
International Prize of Triest 2008 (Italy)
Prêmio Portugal Telecom 2007 (Brazil)

AWARDS FOR HIS NOVEL JERUSALÉM
Prêmio Portugal Telecom de Literatura em Língua Portuguesa 2007
Prêmio José Saramago 2005
Prêmio LER/Millennium BCP 2004

AWARDS FOR ÁGUA, CÃO, CAVALO, CABEÇA
Grande Prêmio de Conto da Associação Portuguesa de Escritores “Camilo Castelo Branco” 2007

AWARDS FOR A VOYAGE TO INDIA
Prémio Fundação Inês de Castro 2012
Prémio Literário Fernando Namora 2011
Grande Prêmio Romance e Novela da Associação Portuguesa de Autores 2011
Prémio Portugal Telecom de Literatura 2011
Prêmio Especial de Imprensa Melhor Livro 2010 Ler/Booktailors
SPA Author’s Prize 2010

NOMINATED FOR
Prix Jean Monnet de Littérature Européenne (2019, with A Girl Is Lost in Her Century Looking for Her Father)
Shortlisted for the Prémio Oceanos (2016, with A Girl Is Lost in Her Century Looking for Her Father)
Prix Femina (2016, France, with Matteo Lost His Job)
Pen Award for Novel, Portuguese Pen Club (2015, A Girl Is Lost in Her Century Looking for Her Father)
Prix Jean-Monnet de Littérature Européenne (2015, France, with Klaus Klump: A Man and Joseph Walser’s Machine)
International IMPAC Dublin award (2013, Ireland, with Learning to Pray in the Age of Technology)
Longlist of the Best Translated Book Award Fiction (2013, USA, with Joseph Walser’s Machine)
Europese Literatuurprijs (2013, Netherlands, with Learning to Pray in the Age of Technology)
Prix Médicis Étranger (2012, France, with A Voyage to India)
Prix Médicis Étranger (2010, France, with Learning to Pray in the Age of Technology)
Prix Femina (2010, France, with Learning to Pray in the Age of Technology)
Prix Cévennes (2009, France, with Jerusalém, award for the Best European Novel)

RIGHTS

NOVELS
The End of the United States of America. An Epic
(”O Fim dos Estados Unidos da América. Epopeia“)
Lisbon: Relógio d’Água 2025, 1002 p.
English sample translation by Daniel Hahn available (95 p.)
Brazil: Dublinense, forthcoming October 2026 · Egypt: Masr El Arabia · France: VH Editions (Viviane Hamy) · Poland: Wydawnictwo Literackie · Spain: Seix Barral (Planeta) (Spanish world rights)

The Middle Bone (”O Osso do Meio“)
Lisbon: Relógio d’Água 2020, 132 p.
Egypt: Masr El Arabia 2021 · France: Viviane Hamy 2024 · Romania: Casa Cărții de Știință · USA: Dalkey Archive Press

A Girl Is Lost in Her Century, Looking for Her Father (”Uma Menina Está Perdida no seu Século à Procura do Pai“)
Porto: Porto Editora 2014, 200 p.
Argentina: Letranómada 2015 · Brazil: Companhia das Letras 2015 · France: Viviane Hamy 2018 · Lebanon: Dar al Rafidain · Mexico: Almadía 2018 · Poland: Wydawnictwo Literackie 2022 · Spain: Seix Barral 2016 · Turkey: Kirmizi Kedi 2022 · USA: Dalkey Archive Press 2025

Old People Want to Live Too (“Os Velhos Também Querem Viver”)
Lisbon: Caminho 2014, 96 p.
Brazil: Foz 2015 · Canada: Guernica Editions · Iraq: Layeth Alhjan Hamad· Peru: Animal de Invierno

A Voyage to India (”Uma Viagem à Índia“)
Lisbon: Caminho 2010; Relógio d’Água 2026, 520 p.
Voted among the Best Books of the Year 2014 by El País and ABC Cultural
Argentina: Letranómada 2014 · Brazil: Leya 2010 · Bulgaria: Colibri 2016 · Catalan: Periscopi 2013 · Croatia: Vukovic & Runjic 2018 · France: Viviane Hamy 2012, 2022 · Mexico: Almadía · Romania: Univers 2014 · Spain: Seix Barral 2014, 5th edition 2018, 6th ed. 2019 · USA: Dalkey Archive 2016

Matteo Lost His Job (”Matteo Perdeu o Emprego“)
Porto: Porto Editora 2010, 210 p.
Brazil: Foz 2013 · Bulgaria: Ergo Publishing House 2021 · France: Viviane Hamy 2016 · Italy: Nottetempo 2016 · Kuwait: Alsurra 2019 · Peru: Animal de Invierno 2018 · Spain: Seix Barral 2023 · Sweden: Tranan 2018

Tetralogy “The Kingdom” (“O Reino”)
Learning to Pray in the Age of Technology (“Aprender a Rezar na Era da Técnica”)
Lisbon: Caminho 2007; Relógio d’Água 2021, 2026, 376 p.
Argentina: Letranómada 2013 · Armenia: New Mag · Brazil: Companhia das Letras 2008 · Bulgaria: Five Plus · Colombia: Uniandes · Egypt: Masr El-Arabia 2019 · France: Viviane Hamy 2010 · Hungary: L’ Harmattan 2013 · India: Falcon Books · Italy: Feltrinelli 2011 · Macedonia: Dooel · Mexico: Almadía 2013 · Poland: Wydawnictwa Literackie 2015 · Romania: Vivaldi 2011 · Serbia: Treci Trg · Slovenia: Modrijan 2009 · Spain: Mondadori 2012, Seix Barral 2018, 2026 · The Netherlands: Querido 2012 · Turkey: Kirmizi Kedi 2017 · USA: Dalkey Archive Press 2011

Jerusalém
Lisbon: Círculo de Leitores 2004; Caminho 2005; Relógio d’Água 2021, 256 p.
Albania: Fjala 2016 · Argentina: Letranómada 2010 · Armenia: Vernatun Pubslihing· Brazil: Companhia das Letras 2006, pb 2017 · Bulgaria: Five Plus 2009 · Catalan: El Gall 2018 · Colombia: Uniandes · Croatia: Sysprint 2009 · Czech Republic: Studio Rubato 2025 · Denmark: Aurora Boreal 2021 · Egypt: Masr El Arabi 2016 · Estonia: Ilmamaa 2014 · France: Viviane Hamy 2008, pb 2012 · Galician: Rinoceronte 2024 · Germany: DVA 2012 · Greece: Kastaniotis 2012 · Hungary: Nagyvilág 2008 · Iceland: Una útgáfuhús 2023 · Israel: Kinneret 2009 · Italy: Guanda 2006 (avail.) · Japan: Kawade Shobo 2021 · Korea: Open Books 2011 · Latvia: Janis Roze 2024 · Lithuania: Lithuanian Writer’s Union · Macedonia: Blesok 2013 · Mexico: Almadía 2009 · Poland: Swiat 2010 · Romania: Humanitas 2008 · Serbia/Montenegro: Treći Trg 2009 · Slovenia: Modrijan Zalozba 2008 · Spain: Mondadori 2009, Seix Barral 2018 · Sri Lanka: GoodReads · Sweden: Lusima 2009 · The Netherlands: Querido 2011 · Turkey: Kirmizi Kedi 2012 · USA: Dalkey Archive Press 2009

Klaus Klump: A Man (“Um Homem: Klaus Klump“)
Lisbon: Caminho 2003, 2004, 2008 (Machine + Klaus Klump), 136 p.; Círculo de Leitores 2006; Relógio d’Água 2024, 132 p.
Shortlisted for the Prix Jean-Monnet de Littérature Européenne 2015
Voted among the Best Books of the Year 2014 by the English literary magazine Gorse
Brazil: Companhia das Letras 2007 · Bulgaria: Five Plus 2010 · Colombia: Uniandes 2017 · Croatia: Vukovic & Runjic (Machine + Klaus Klump) 2017 · Egypt: Masr El Arabia · France: Viviane Hamy 2014 (Machine + Klaus Klump) · Indonesia: Yayasan Pustaka Obor 2019 · Romania: Paralela45 2018 · Serbia: Treci Trg 2011 (Machine + Klaus Klump) · Slovakia: Portugalsky Institute · Spain: Mondadori 2006, Seix Barral 2018 · Turkey: Kirmizi Kedi (Machine + Klaus Klump) 2016 · USA: Dalkey Archive 2014

Joseph Walser’s Machine (“A Máquina de Joseph Walser”)
Lisbon: Caminho 2003, 2004, 2008 (Machine + Klaus Klump), 168 p.; Círculo de Leitores 2006; Relógio d’Água 2023, 192 p.
Shortlisted for the Prix Jean-Monnet de Littérature Européenne 2015
Brazil: Companhia das Letras 2010 · Bulgaria: Five Plus 2011 · Colombia: Uniandes 2017 · Croatia: Vukovic & Runjic (Machine + Klaus Klump) 2017 · Egypt: Masr El Arabia · France: Viviane Hamy 2014 (Machine + Klaus Klump) · Germany: DVA 2014 · Paraguay: Ediciones de la Ura · Romania: Paralela45 2018 · Serbia: Treci Trg 2011 (Machine + Klaus Klump) · Spain: Mondadori 2007, Seix Barral 2018 · Turkey: Kirmizi Kedi (Machine + Klaus Klump) 2016 · USA: Dalkey Archive 2012

O Bairro (The Neighbourhood):
Voted among the Best Books of the Year 2014 in Argentina

Mr Valéry and Logic (“O Senhor Valéry e a Lógica”)
Lisbon: Caminho 2002, 80 p.
Prix Laure Bataillon 2021 for the best book translated in France
Argentina: Interzona · Belgium: Orfeu · Brazil: Escritos 2004, Casa da Palavra 2011, Editora Nós · Bulgaria: Ergo Books 2020 · China: Shanghai 99 2016 · Costa Rica: Editorial Costa Rica 2016 · Croatia: Sysprint 2008 · Czech Republic: SMRST 2011 · Dominican Republic: UME · France: Viviane Hamy 2008, 2020 · German: Korrespondenzen 2020 · Greece: Kastaniotis 2016 · Guatemala: Catafixia · India: Transbooks 2005 (English for India only) · Italy: Guanda 2005, Nottetempo 2014, Noi Edizioni · Korea: Open Books · Kuwait: Alsurra 2018 · Macedonia: Begemot 2020 · Mexico: Almadía 2012 · Morocco: Racines 2011 · Poland: Bertelsmann Media 2007 · Romania: Allfa · Russia: Alexandria; Liberty Books, forthcoming 2026 · Serbia: Treci Trg 2011 · Slovakia: Portugalsky Institute 2017 · Slovenia: Beletrina 2008 · Spain: Mondadori 2006, Seix Baral 2015, 2019, 2022 · Sweden: Tranan 2012 · Switzerland: La Joie de Lire 2003 (French) · Turkey: Kirmizi Kedi 2014 · USA: Texas Tech University Press 2012

Mr Henri and the Encyclopaedia (“O Senhor Henri e a Enciclopédia”)
Lisbon: Caminho 2003, 95 p.
Argentina: Interzona 2012 · Belgium: Orfeu · Brazil: Escritos 2004, Casa da Palavra 2011, Editora Nós · Bulgaria: Ergo Books 2020 · China: Shanghai 99 2016 · Costa Rica: Editorial Costa Rica 2016 · Croatia: Sysprint 2008 · Dominican Republic: UME · France: Viviane Hamy 2020 · German: Korrespondenzen 2020 · Greece: Kastaniotis 2016 · Guatemala: Catafixia · India: Transbooks 2005 (English for India only) · Italy: Noi Edizioni · Korea: Open Books 2015 · Kuwait: Alsurra 2018 · Macedonia: Begemot 2020 · Mexico: Almadía 2012 · Poland: Bertelsmann Media 2007 · Romania: Allfa · Russia: Alexandria · Serbia: Treci Trg 2011 · Slovakia: Portugalsky Institute 2017 · Slovenia: Beletrina 2008 · Spain: Mondadori 2007, Seix Baral 2015, 2019, 2022 · Turkey: Kirmizi Kedi 2014 · USA: Texas Tech University Press 2012

Mr Brecht and Success (“O Senhor Brecht e o Sucesso”)
Lisbon: Caminho 2004; Relógio d’Água 2016, 72 p.
Argentina: Interzona 2012 · Belgium: Orfeu · Brazil: Casa da Palavra 2005, Editora Nós · Bulgaria: Ergo Books 2020 · China: Shanghai 99 2016 · Costa Rica: Editorial Costa Rica 2016, H & H (Creole) · Croatia: Sysprint 2008 · Czech Republic: SMRST 2012 · Dominican Republic: UME · France: Viviane Hamy 2010, 2020 · German: Korrespondenzen 2020 · Greece: Kastaniotis 2016 · Guatemala: Catafixia · India: Transbooks 2006 (English for India only) · Italy: Noi Edizioni · Korea: Open Books 2015 · Macedonia: Begemot 2020 · Mexico: Almadía 2012 · Poland: Bertelsmann Media 2007 · Romania: Allfa · Russia: Alexandria; Liberty Books, forthcoming 2026 · Serbia: Treci Trg 2011 · Slovakia: Portugalsky Institute 2018 · Slovenia: Beletrina 2008 · Spain: Mondadori 2007, Seix Baral 2015, 2019, 2022 · Sweden: Tranan 2012 · Turkey: Kirmizi Kedi 2014

Mr Juarroz and Thought (”O Senhor Juarroz e o Pensamento“)
Lisbon: Caminho 2004, 88 p.
Argentina: Interzona 2012 · Belgium: Orfeu · Brazil: Casa da Palavra 2006, Editora Nós · Bulgaria: Ergo Books 2020 · Costa Rica: Editorial Costa Rica 2016 · Croatia: Sysprint 2008 · Dominican Republic: UME · France: Viviane Hamy 2020 · German: Korrespondenzen 2020 · Greece: Kastaniotis 2016 · Guatemala: Catafixia · India: Transbooks 2007 (English for India only) · Italy: Noi Edizioni · Korea: Open Books 2015 · Kuwait: Alsurra 2018 · Macedonia: Begemot 2020 · Mexico: Almadía 2012 · Poland: Bertelsmann Media 2007 · Romania: Allfa · Russia: Alexandria; Liberty Books, forthcoming 2026 · Serbia: Treci Trg 2011 · Slovakia: Portugalsky Institute 2017 · Slovenia: Beletrina 2008 · Spain: Seix Baral 2015, 2019, 2022 · Sweden: Tranan 2012 · Turkey: Kirmizi Kedi 2014 · USA: Texas Tech University Press 2012

Mr Calvin and the Promenade (“O Senhor Calvino e o Passeio”)
Lisbon: Caminho 2005, 71 p.
Argentina: Interzona · Belgium: Orfeu · Brazil: Casa da Palavra 2006, Editora Nós · Bulgaria: Ergo Books 2020 · China: Shanghai 99 2016 · Costa Rica: Editorial Costa Rica 2016 · Croatia: Sysprint 2008 · Dominican Republic: UME · France: Viviane Hamy 2009, 2020 · German: Korrespondenzen 2022 · Greece: Kastaniotis 2016 · Guatemala: Catafixia · India: Transbooks 2007 (English for India only) · Italy: Guanda 2007, Nottetempo 2014, Noi Edizioni · Korea: Open Books · Kuwait: Alsurra 2018 · Macedonia: Begemot 2020 · Mexico: Almadía 2012 · Poland: Bertelsmann Media 2007 · Romania: Allfa · Russia: Alexandria; Liberty Books, forthcoming 2026 · Serbia: Treci Trg 2011 · Slovakia: Portugalsky Institute 2018 · Slovenia: Beletrina 2008 · Spain: Seix Baral 2015, 2019, 2022 · Sweden: Tranan 2012 · Turkey: Kirmizi Kedi 2014 · USA: Texas Tech University Press 2012

Mr Kraus and Politics (“O Senhor Kraus e a Política”)
Lisbon: Caminho 2005, 116 p.
Argentina: Interzona · Belgium: Orfeu · Brazil: Casa da Palavra 2006, Editora Nós · Bulgaria: Ergo Books 2020 · Costa Rica: Editorial Costa Rica 2016 · Croatia: Sysprint 2008 · Czech Republic: SMRST 2012 · Dominican Republic: UME · France: Viviane Hamy 2009, 2020 · German: Korrespondenzen 2021 · Greece: Kastaniotis 2016 · Guatemala: Catafixia · India: Transbooks 2008 (English for India only) · Italy: Nottetempo 2014, Noi Edizioni · Korea: Open Books · Kuwait: Alsurra 2018 · Macedonia: Begemot 2020 · Mexico: Almadía 2012 · Poland: Bertelsmann Media 2007 · Romania: Allfa · Serbia: Treci Trg 2011 · Slovakia: Portugalsky Institute 2018 · Slovenia: Beletrina 2008 · Spain: Seix Baral 2015, 2019, 2022 · USA: Texas Tech University Press 2012 · Venezuela: Madera Fina

Mr Walser and the Forest (“O Senhor Walser e a Floresta”)
Lisbon: Caminho 2006; Relógio d’Água 2016, 56 p.
Argentina: Interzona · Belgium: Orfeu · Brazil: Casa da Palavra 2008, Editora Nós · Bulgaria: Ergo Books 2020 · Costa Rica: Editorial Costa Rica 2016 · Croatia: Sysprint 2008 · Dominican Republic: UME · France: Viviane Hamy 2011, 2020 · Germany: Korrespondenzen 2023 · Greece: Kastaniotis 2016 · Guatemala: Catafixia · Italy: Nottetempo 2014, Noi Edizioni · Korea: Open Books · Kuwait: Alsurra 2018 · Macedonia: Begemot 2020 · Mexico: Almadía 2012 · Romania: Allfa · Russia: Alexandria; Liberty Books, forthcoming 2026 · Serbia: Treci Trg 2011 · Slovakia: Portugalsky Institute 2018 · Slovenia: Beletrina 2008 · Spain: Seix Baral 2015, 2019, 2022 · Turkey: Kirmizi Kedi 2014 · USA: Texas Tech University Press 2012 · Venezuela: Madera Fina

Mr Breton and the Interview (“O Senhor Breton e a Entrevista”)
Lisbon: Caminho 2008, 56 p.
Argentina: Interzona · Belgium: Orfeu · Brazil: Casa da Palavra 2009, Editora Nós · Bulgaria: Ergo Books 2020 · Costa Rica: Editorial Costa Rica 2016 · Dominican Republic: UME · France: Viviane Hamy 2008, 2020 · German: Korrespondenzen 2024 · Greece: Kastaniotis 2016 · Guatemala: Catafixia · Italy: Urogallo 2023 · Korea: Open Books · Macedonia: Begemot 2020 · Mexico: Almadía 2012 · Romania: Allfa · Russia: Alexandria · Serbia: Treci Trg 2011 · Slovakia: Portugalsky Institute 2018 · Spain: Témenos (Catalan), Seix Baral 2015; 2019; 2022 · Venezuela: Madera Fina

Mr Swedenborg and the Geometrical Investigations (“O Senhor Swedenborg e as investigações geométricas”)
Lisbon: Caminho 2009; Relógio d’Água 2024, 120 p.
Argentina: Interzona 2012 · Belgium: Orfeu · Brazil: Casa da Palavra 2011, Editora Nós · Bulgaria: Ergo Books 2020 · Costa Rica: Editorial Costa Rica 2016 · Dominican Republic: UME · France: Viviane Hamy 2014, 2022 · German: Korrespondenzen 2025 · Greece: Kastaniotis 2016 · Guatemala: Catafixia · Italy: Noi Edizioni · Korea: Open Books 2015 · Macedonia: Begemot 2020 · Mexico: Almadía 2012 · Romania: Allfa · Serbia: Treci Trg 2011 · Slovakia: Portugalsky Institute 2018 · Spain: Seix Baral 2015, 2019, 2022 · Sweden: Tranan 2012 · Venezuela: Madera Fina

Mr Eliot and the Conferences (“O Senhor Eliot e as Conferências”)
Lisbon: Caminho 2010, 74 p.
Argentina: Interzona 2012 · Belgium: Orfeu · Brazil: Casa da Palavra 2011, Editora Nós · Bulgaria: Ergo Books 2020 · Costa Rica: Editorial Costa Rica 2016 · Dominican Republic: UME · France: Viviane Hamy 2015 · German: Korrespondenzen 2026 · Greece: Kastaniotis 2016 · Guatemala: Catafixia · Italy: Noi Edizioni · Korea: Open Books 2015 · Macedonia: Begemot 2020 · Mexico: Almadía 2012 · Romania: Allfa · Serbia: Treci Trg 2011 · Slovakia: Portugalsky Institute 2018 · Spain: Seix Baral 2015, 2019, 2022 · Sweden: Tranan 2012 · Venezuela: Madera Fina

Fragmented History of the World (“História Fragmentada do Mundo”)
Mussolini’s Boots (“As Botas de Mussolini”)
Lisbon: Relógio D’Água 2023, 72 p.
Mexico: Fondo de Cultura Económica (Latin American Rights)· Spain: Editorial Difácil (Spanish Rights)

DIARY-FICTION (DIÁRIO FICÇÃO)
In America, Said Jonathan (“Na América, Disse Jonathan”)
Lisbon: Relógio d’Água 2019, 112 p.
Egypt: Masr El Arabia (worldwide) · Germany: Kupido Literaturverlag 2021

MYTHOLOGIES (MITOLOGIAS)
The Devil (”O Diabo“)
Lisbon: Bertrand 2022, 200 p.
Brazil: Dublinense 2025 · Egypt: Masr El Arabia (worldwide) · Peru: La Gran Sinergia

Five Children, Five Rats (”Cinco Meninos, Cinco Ratos“)
Lisbon: Bertand 2018, 228 p.
Brazil: Dublinense, 2019 · Egypt: Masr El Arabia (worldwide) · France: Viviane Hamy 2022

The Woman-Without-a-Head and the Man-With-the-Evil-Eye (”A Mulher Sem Cabeça e o Homem do Mau-Olhado“)
Lisbon: Bertrand 2017, 152 p.
Extract published at Granta, UK
Brazil: Dublinense 2019 · Egypt: Masr El Arabia 2018 · France: Viviane Hamy 2022

DIARY
Plague Diary (“Diário da Peste”)
Lisbon: Relógio D’Água 2021, 312 p.
Complete English translation available
Argentina: Interzona 2020 · Brasil: Nós · Bulgaria: Ergo Publishing 2022 · Canada/USA: Quattro Books · France: Bouquins 2022· Greece: Kastaniotis 2021 · Italy: Noi · Moldova (Romanian): Cartier 2022 · Spain: Días Contados (only in Spain) 2022

DIALOGUE FICTION
His Excellency, The Circumlucologist (“O Torcicologologista, Excelência”)
Lisbon: Caminho 2015, 304 p.
Brazil: Dublinense 2017

ESSAYS
The Stone and the Drawing (“A Pedra e o Desenho”)
Lisbon: Relogio D´Agua 2022, 80 p.
Spain: La Umbría y la Solana

Atlas of the Body and the Imagination (“Atlas do Corpo e da Imaginação”)
Lisbon: Caminho 2013; Relógio d’Água 2019, 536 p.
Italy: Nova Delphi · Mexico: Matadero 2018 · Brazil: Dublinense 2021

ENCICLOPÉDIA (ESSAY-FICTION)
Short Notes on the Orient (“Breves Notas Sobre o Oriente”)
Lisbon: Relógio D’Água 2023, 104 p.

Dictionary of Artists (“Dicionário de Artistas”)
Lisbon: Relógio D’Água 2021, 136 p.
Brazil: Dublinense 2023 · Spain: La Umbría y la Solana

Short Notes on Literature-Bloom (“Breves Notas sobre a Literatura-Bloom”)
Lisbon: Relógio d’Água 2016, 96 p.
Argentina: Letranómada · Chile: Puntángeles · Costa Rica: Encino · Italy: Urogallo 2023 · Mexico: Matadero 2018 · Poland: Wydawnictwo slowo 2018 · Romania: Scoala Ardeleana · Spain: Xordica · Spain (Catalan): Edicions del Periscopi 2016 · Uruguay: HUM · USA: Quantum Prose 2019

Short Notes on Music (“Breves Notas sobre a Música”)
Lisbon: Relógio d’Água 2015, 120 p.
Argentina: Letranómada · Chile: Puntángeles · Costa Rica: Encino · Italy: Urogallo 2023 · Mexico: Matadero 2018 · Poland: Wydawnictwo slowo 2018 · Romania: Scoala Ardeleana · Spain: Xordica · Spain (Catalan): Edicions del Periscopi· Uruguay: HUM· USA: Quantum Prose 2019

Short Notes on Connections (Llansol, Molder, and Zambrano) (“Breves Notas sobre as Ligações (Llansol, Molder e Zambrano)”)
Lisbon: Relógio d’Água 2009, 96 p.
Argentina: Letranómada 2010 · Brazil: Design 2009 · Chile: Puntángeles · Costa Rica: Encino · Colombia: Uniandes 2016 · Ecuador: Paradiso · Italy: Urogallo 2023 · Mexico: Aldus 2010 · Peru: Colmena · Poland: Wydawnictwo slowo 2018 · Romania: Scoala Ardeleana · Spain: Regional de Extremadura 2010, Xordica · Uruguay: HUM· USA: Quantum Prose 2019

Short Notes on Fear (“Breves Notas sobre o Medo”)
Lisbon: Relógio d’Água 2007, 69 p.
Argentina: Letranómada · Brazil: Design 2009 · Chile: Puntángeles · Colombia: Uniandes 2016 · Costa Rica: Encino · Ecuador: Paradiso · Italy: Urogallo 2023 · Mexico: Aldus 2010 · Peru: Colmena · Poland: Wydawnictwo slowo 2018 · Romania: Scoala Ardeleana · Spain: Regional de Extremadura 2010, Xordica · Uruguay: HUM· USA: Quantum Prose 2019

Short Notes on Science (“Breves Notas sobre a Ciência”)
Lisbon: Relógio d’Água 2006, 145 p.
English translation available at asymptotejournal.com
Argentina: Letranómada · Brazil: Design 2009 · Costa Rica: Encino · Colombia: Uniandes 2016 · Ecuador: Paradiso · Italy: Urogallo 2023 · Mexico: Aldus 2010 · Peru: Colmena · Poland: Wydawnictwo slowo 2018 · Romania: Scoala Ardeleana · Spain: Regional de Extremadura 2010, Xordica · Uruguay: HUM· USA: Quantum Prose 2019

BLOOM BOOKS
The Left Leg of Paris Followed by Roland Barthes and Robert Musil (“A Perna Esquerda de Paris Seguido de Roland Barthes e Robert Musil”)
Lisbon: Relógio d’ Água 2004, 166 p.
Brazil: Lumme · Chile: Alquimia

THEATRE
The Man is either Silly or a Woman (“O Homem ou É Tonto ou É Mulher”)
Porto: Campo das Letras 2003, 76 p.
Brazil: Casa da Palavra 2005

Samuel Beckett’s Spoon and other Texts (“A Colher de Samuel Beckett e outros Textos”)
Porto: Campo das Letras 2002, 82 p.
Brazil: Arte & Letra

SONGS (CANÇÕES)
Água, Cão, Cavalo, Cabeça
Lisbon: Caminho 2006, 91 p.
Argentina: Letranómada 2008 · German: Verlag der Apfel 2008 · Italy: Il Filo 2009 · Mexico: Almadía 2009 · Romania: Scoala Ardealeana 2021 (in the anthology “Cântece”) · Spain: Xordica 2010

Mexican Songs (“Canções Mexicanas”)
Lisbon: Relógio d’Água 2011, 96 p.
Brazil: Casa da Palavra 2013 · Mexico: Almadía 2013 · Puerto Rico: Trabalis 2016 · Romania: Scoala Ardealeana 2021 (in the anthology “Cântece”)

Animalistic (“Animalescos”)
Lisbon: Relógio d’Água 2013, 144 p.
Bolivia: El Cuervo 2021 · Brazil: Dublinense 2015, 2019 · Costa Rico: H&H · Romania: Scoala Ardealeana 2021 (in the anthology “Cântece”) · Spain: Kriller 71

STORIES
False Stories (“Histórias Falsas”)
Lisbon: Campo das Letras 2005, Caminho 2014, 96 p.
Argentina: Letranómada 2008 · Brazil: Casa da Palavra 2008 · Catalonia: El Gall 2015· Colombia: El Pelegrino · Cuba: Feria del Libro de la Habana 2014 · Ecuador: Paradiso 2013 · El Salvador: Los Sin Pisto 2022 · Honduras: Mimalapalabra 2022· Italy: Urogallo 2020 · Lebanon: Dar al Rafidain · Mexico: Almadía 2008 · Serbia: Treci Trg 2014 · Spain: Xordica 2008

SHORT PROSE
Bucareste-Budapeste: Budapeste-Bucareste
Lisbon: Relógio D’Água, 2019, 108 p.
Brazil: Oficina Raquel 2022 · Romania: Casa Cărţii de Ştiinţă 2024 · Spain: Nordica Libros (Spanish only in Spain) 2022

Short Movies
Lisbon: Caminho 2011, 160 p.
Argentina: Interzona · Brazil: Dublinense 2015

Library (“Biblioteca”)
Porto: Campo das Letras 2004, 190 p.
Argentina: Letranómada 2009 · Brazil: Casa da Palavra 2009 · Spain: Xordica (Spanish only in Spain) 2007

PARTICIPATION IN ANTHOLOGIES
Europe City: Lessons from the European Prize for Urban Public Space
Epilogue by Zygmunt Baumann
Spain: Lars Müller 2015

Best European Fiction 2011
USA: Dalkey Archive Press 2010

POETRY
Geometrical Investigations (“Investigações Geométricas”)
Lisbon: Fundação Ciência e Desenvolvimento 2005, 151 p.

1 (Poetry) (“1 (Poesia)”)
Lisbon: Relógio d’Água 2004
Belgium: Atlas 2003 (anthology) · Brazil: Bertrand 2005 · Italy: Franco Puzzo 2008 · Luxembourg: CLAE/25A 2011 · Serbia: Treci Trg 2011 · Spain: Luces de Galibo 2012

Book of Dance (“Livro da Dança”)
Lisbon: Assírio & Alvim 2001, 137 p.
Argentina: Zindo & Gafuri 2017 · Brazil: Design 2008 · Hungary: Typotex 2019 · Spain: Kriller 71 2015

FOR YOUNG READERS
The Shoes. Stories by Mister Valéry (“Os Sapatos. Histórias do Senhor Valéry”)
Lisbon: Caminho 2009, 32 p.
Brazil: Realejo · Hungary: Typotex 2019

The Holiday House. Stories by Mister Valéry (“A Casa de Férias. Histórias do Senhor Valéry”)
Lisbon: Caminho 2008, 32 p.
Brazil: Realejo

The Two Sides. Stories by Mister Valéry (“Os Dois Lados. Histórias do Senhor Valéry”)
Lisbon: Caminho 2007, 25 p.
Brazil: Realejo

The Friends. Stories by Mister Valéry (“Os Amigos. Histórias do Senhor Valéry”)
Lisbon: Caminho 2007, 25 p.
Brazil: Realejo · Mexico: Ediciones SM 2014 · Panama: Piggy Press · Palestine: Palestina Writing · Spain: Onanda (Catalan)

Short prose – Literarische Agentur

Andrea del Fuego

Brazil

//

I Deny Everything. Sudden Fictions

Quotes

»The new edition is compact and distraction-free. It is a small book that fits in your trouser pocket, glove compartment, or next to the cups in the cupboard, designed to be carried around the house and down the street.« Andrea del Fuego

»A sharp and unique book: an aesthetic delight, an exercise in literature in its freest form, and a rare opportunity to rediscover Andrea del Fuego in her original form, now even more powerful.« Asterisco

//

The Paediatrician

Quotes

»This is a contemporary novel about professionalism, status and little twitches of emotion that are completely alien. It is highly readable and very chilling.« Kulturnytt Radio Sweden

»A skillful framing of a person’s elusive inner self. 4 out of 5 stars.« Swedish Library Journal

»In her new publication, Andrea del Fuego demonstrates that she has not only maintained but refined her power of synthesis in short, precise sentences, with an agile flow and continuous rhythm throughout the 160 pages of the novel.« Vogue Brazil

»Cecilia is one of the most passionate characters I’ve read this year.« Tati Bernardi

»THE PEDIATRICIAN is, above all, a book about the contempt of those in power for those in an inferior position; it is the certainty of impunity for those who can do everything because their social position allows it.« O Globo

//

The Miniatures

Quotes

»Andrea del Fuego brings a breath of fresh air to contemporary literature.« Folha de Pernambuco

»Some of the most exciting prose from today’s Portuguese-language authors.« Express

//

The Malaquias

Quotes

»With del Fuego’s debut novel The Malaquias, contemporary Brazilian literature proves itself to be extraordinarily lively, masterfully written and among the world’s best. A sparkling book full of vitality.« NZZ

»Her characters live in the hiatus between the archaic and the modern, they dwell in this dense little space between cosmopolitanism and localism. The novel’s force lies in its evoking of memories and highlighting the relationships between the characters.« Globo, Prosa & Verso

//

Crystal Skull Society

Quotes

»From the first to the last page, del Fuego has made a vibrant and infectious book … and a very topical one.« Marcelino Freire

»This was one of the most amazing books I‘ve ever read. It was one of the precursors for me to start reading non-stop and I fell in love with it the moment I finished reading it.« Blogspot: Caíque Silva, Escrita Literária

»Del Fuego‘s book is an engrossing read from start to finish, with very short chapters that make the reader want to read another one. In addition, the writing and dialogues are easy to understand and the narrative is engaging.« O Bóte Magazine

//

Plush Detectives

RIGHTS

Silvina Ocampo

(1903-1993) Argentina

//

About her work

//

The Promise

Quotes

»Ocampo’s readers will participate in an unforgettable banquet. Luckily for many of us, Ocampo’s universe is constantly expanding.« Página/12

»Of all the words that could define her, the most accurate is, I think, ingenious.« Jorge Luis Borges

» . . . a bold phantasmagoria, marked by Ocampo’s insight that in extremis, delirium can be the highest form of truth.« Laura Kolbe, New York Review of Books

»Diamonds, Dionysus, and Drowning: . . . every sentence glints with precision . . . what you’re after are the sentences, which have the feel of epigrams . . . I think I took a photo of nearly every other page so as not to forget them.« Rhian Sasseen, The Paris Review

»I think Silvina Ocampo is a genius, one of the greatest. She lived a little in the shadow of her sister Victoria on the one hand and of her husband Bioy Casares and Borges on the other. She was an extravagant woman when writing her stories, short and crystalline, she was perfect.« César Aira

»Suzanne Jill Levine, working with Jessica Powell on The Promise and Katie Lateef-Jan on Forgotten Journey, has produced a translation that beautifully captures the elegance and strangeness of Ocampo’s style. . . . The results are intoxicating.« Miranda France, The Times Literary Supplement

»A seminal work by an underread master. Required for all students of the human condition.« Kirkus Reviews

//

The Topless Tower

RIGHTS

Ana María Shua

Argentina

//

The Passover Pet Surprise / La gran sorpresa de Pésaj

Quotes

»The Passover Pet Surprise is the breakout star among this year’s new Passover releases. Published simultaneously in Spanish and English, the book is steeped in Argentinian-Jewish traditions for Passover as well as South American culture more broadly.« The Canadian Jewish News

»An excellent choice for Passover story hour, this book also works year-round as a conversation starter about culture, family, and responsibility toward animals.« School Library Journal, starred review

»A story about taking the lessons that you learn and applying them to your own life.« Betsy Bird, Fuse #8, School Library Journal

»[A] multicultural feast for the eyes.« Foreword Reviews

»Passover brings a family together in Argentina where cousins live alongside an abundance of animals and shared traditions. The holidays message of freedom takes on new meaning, learning and understanding when pet birds are let free in an unexpected way.« Jesica S., Seattle Hebrew Academy

//

Broken Body

Quotes

»Shua’s writing moves like someone turning on a flickering light in the midst of chaos: it illuminates fragments, leaves others in shadow, and through this oscillation constructs a truth that only literature can sustain.« El Periódico Mediterráneo

»Almost weary of all forms of knowledge and—perhaps—of all transgressions, Shua is a master of paradox and of the unease it inevitably entails.« Fogwill

»Shua writes with a composed and intelligent air, not with the biting snap of someone who, through artifice, reveals the trick and ruins the effect—the forceful final jolt of the texts.« Ernesto Calabauig, El Cultural

»It is a fact: over the years, Shua has, by right and through her own merits, become a kind of genius and oracle on the matter.« Rodrigo Fresán, Página/12

//

Daughter

Quotes

»A brilliant family thriller.« La Nación

»Daughter is without doubt one of the best novels by one of the best contemporary Argentinian writers.« En Línea Noticias

»With deft handling, Shua makes us share the joys and anxieties of motherhood.« Clarín

//

Mister Pluf. My Friend From Another Planet

//

The Land of Lost Fears

Quotes

»The new edition is compact and distraction-free. It is a small book that fits in your trouser pocket, glove compartment, or next to the cups in the cupboard, designed to be carried around the house and down the street.«
Andrea del Fuego

»A sharp and unique book: an aesthetic delight, an exercise in literature in its freest form, and a rare opportunity to rediscover Andrea del Fuego in her original form, now even more powerful.«
Asterisco

»This is a contemporary novel about professionalism, status and little twitches of emotion that are completely alien. It is highly readable and very chilling.«
Kulturnytt Radio Sweden

»A skillful framing of a person’s elusive inner self. 4 out of 5 stars.«
Swedish Library Journal

»In her new publication, Andrea del Fuego demonstrates that she has not only maintained but refined her power of synthesis in short, precise sentences, with an agile flow and continuous rhythm throughout the 160 pages of the novel.«
Vogue Brazil

»Cecilia is one of the most passionate characters I’ve read this year.«
Tati Bernardi

»THE PEDIATRICIAN is, above all, a book about the contempt of those in power for those in an inferior position; it is the certainty of impunity for those who can do everything because their social position allows it.«
O Globo

»Andrea del Fuego brings a breath of fresh air to contemporary literature.«
Folha de Pernambuco

»Some of the most exciting prose from today’s Portuguese-language authors.«
Express

»With del Fuego’s debut novel The Malaquias, contemporary Brazilian literature proves itself to be extraordinarily lively, masterfully written and among the world’s best. A sparkling book full of vitality.«
NZZ

»Her characters live in the hiatus between the archaic and the modern, they dwell in this dense little space between cosmopolitanism and localism. The novel’s force lies in its evoking of memories and highlighting the relationships between the characters.«
Globo, Prosa & Verso

»From the first to the last page, del Fuego has made a vibrant and infectious book … and a very topical one.«
Marcelino Freire

»This was one of the most amazing books I‘ve ever read. It was one of the precursors for me to start reading non-stop and I fell in love with it the moment I finished reading it.«
Blogspot: Caíque Silva, Escrita Literária

»Del Fuego‘s book is an engrossing read from start to finish, with very short chapters that make the reader want to read another one. In addition, the writing and dialogues are easy to understand and the narrative is engaging.«
O Bóte Magazine

(1903-1993)
Argentina

»Ocampo’s readers will participate in an unforgettable banquet. Luckily for many of us, Ocampo’s universe is constantly expanding.«
Página/12

»Of all the words that could define her, the most accurate is, I think, ingenious.«
Jorge Luis Borges

» . . . a bold phantasmagoria, marked by Ocampo’s insight that in extremis, delirium can be the highest form of truth.«
Laura Kolbe, New York Review of Books

»Diamonds, Dionysus, and Drowning: . . . every sentence glints with precision . . . what you’re after are the sentences, which have the feel of epigrams . . . I think I took a photo of nearly every other page so as not to forget them.«
Rhian Sasseen, The Paris Review

»I think Silvina Ocampo is a genius, one of the greatest. She lived a little in the shadow of her sister Victoria on the one hand and of her husband Bioy Casares and Borges on the other. She was an extravagant woman when writing her stories, short and crystalline, she was perfect.«
César Aira

»Suzanne Jill Levine, working with Jessica Powell on The Promise and Katie Lateef-Jan on Forgotten Journey, has produced a translation that beautifully captures the elegance and strangeness of Ocampo’s style. . . . The results are intoxicating.«
Miranda France, The Times Literary Supplement

»A seminal work by an underread master. Required for all students of the human condition.«
Kirkus Reviews

»The Passover Pet Surprise is the breakout star among this year’s new Passover releases. Published simultaneously in Spanish and English, the book is steeped in Argentinian-Jewish traditions for Passover as well as South American culture more broadly.«
The Canadian Jewish News

»An excellent choice for Passover story hour, this book also works year-round as a conversation starter about culture, family, and responsibility toward animals.«
School Library Journal, starred review

»A story about taking the lessons that you learn and applying them to your own life.«
Betsy Bird, Fuse #8, School Library Journal

»[A] multicultural feast for the eyes.«
Foreword Reviews

»Passover brings a family together in Argentina where cousins live alongside an abundance of animals and shared traditions. The holidays message of freedom takes on new meaning, learning and understanding when pet birds are let free in an unexpected way.«
Jesica S., Seattle Hebrew Academy

»Shua’s writing moves like someone turning on a flickering light in the midst of chaos: it illuminates fragments, leaves others in shadow, and through this oscillation constructs a truth that only literature can sustain.«
El Periódico Mediterráneo

»Almost weary of all forms of knowledge and—perhaps—of all transgressions, Shua is a master of paradox and of the unease it inevitably entails.«
Fogwill

»Shua writes with a composed and intelligent air, not with the biting snap of someone who, through artifice, reveals the trick and ruins the effect—the forceful final jolt of the texts.«
Ernesto Calabauig, El Cultural

»It is a fact: over the years, Shua has, by right and through her own merits, become a kind of genius and oracle on the matter.«
Rodrigo Fresán, Página/12

»A brilliant family thriller.«
La Nación

»Daughter is without doubt one of the best novels by one of the best contemporary Argentinian writers.«
En Línea Noticias

»With deft handling, Shua makes us share the joys and anxieties of motherhood.«
Clarín

»The Weight of Temptation is a precise, gracious, acerbic, entertaining novel, the latest in a series of recent texts in which literature is beginning to investigate a disorder whose history is, in many ways, only just beginning.«
Patricio Lennard, Página/12

»In this magnificent circus of microfiction, the author hurls round nouns into the air, juggles masterfully with verbs and lashes out with her whip until the words start leaping through rings of fire of their own accord.«
Silvina Friera

»Ana María Shua has written a marvelous book. Her greatest achievement is turning the reader into a privileged spectator as well.«
Página 12

»Such an unusual, great and sometimes disturbing work has not been published in our language for many years.«
INTERVIÚ, Spain

»The history of humanity as told to the neighbours. In every home, a different philosophy. The history of humanity in a single neighbourhood.«
Svetlana Alexievich, Nobel Prize in Literature 2015, on The Neighbourhood

»I greatly admire Gonçalo M. Tavares’s book Learning to Pray in the Age of Technology.«
J. M . Coetzee, Nobel Prize in Literature 2003

»The brilliant Gonçalo M. Tavares.«
Le Magazine Littéraire

»The author of a powerful and unique work, who has been celebrated by great names such as José Saramago, Alberto Manguel and Enrique Vila-Matas.«
Le Monde des Livres

»A work that brings together pressing concerns, such as our current follies, violence and the consequences of abused power, themes also found in A Voyage to India, Joseph Walser’s Machine and Jerusalém.«
Books Magazine

»Gonçalo M. Tavares narrates the fall of the United States in a work that is as ambitious as it is brilliant.«
Jornal de Noticias

»An extraordinarily dense text, written from day to day, and in this strange time when
all days seem the same. A diary in which the news of the world, verses of poetry, things seen, a white wall and two dogs all cross and are edited together.«
France Culture (Radio)

»It is neither a novel nor memoirs, but rather scattered and strangely disturbing snippets that mix together serious reflections on our times with digressions and observations.«
Valeurs Actuelles

»The strength of this book is its violence: Tavares does not console us; he throws sentence after sentence to bring us back to the tipping point of March 2020. Reading this book, we relive that day when “someone touched the machinery of the world and turned down the sound”.«
Transfuge

»This Plague Diary is one of the finest moments in Portuguese literature.«
António Guerreiro

»A book that is a monument to these times.«
Jornal N