Name: The Taker and Other Stories
Price: 300.00 ZAR
Availability: InStock
Author: Fonseca, Rubem ; Landers, Clifford E.
ISBN: 9781948830706

Type

Physical Book

Author

Rubem Fonseca

Translated by

Clifford E. Landers

Publisher

Open Letter

Language

English

Pages

166

Format

Paperback

Dimensions

21.3 x 13.7 x 1.3 cm

Weight

0.23 kg.

ISBN13

9781948830706

Synopsis "The Taker and Other Stories"

"Each of Fonseca's books is not only a worthwhile journey; it is also, in some way, a necessary one."--Thomas PynchonMost widely admired for his short fiction, The Taker and Other Stories is Fonseca's first collection to appear in English translation, and it ranges across his oeuvre, exploring the sights and sounds of the modern landscape of Rio de Janeiro. Rubem Fonseca's Rio is a city at war, a city whose vast disparities--in wealth, social standing, and prestige--are untenable. In the stories of The Taker, rich and poor live in an uneasy equilibrium, where only overwhelming force can maintain order, and violence and deception are essential tools of survival.Whether recounting the story of a businessman who runs over pedestrians to let off steam, a serial killer being pushed to ever greater crimes by his bourgeois lover, the desperate poor rushing to butcher a cow that has been killed in a traffic accident, or a man seeking out confirmation for a past which his friends deny, Fonseca repeatedly reaffirms his status as one of the purest storytellers on the contemporary Brazilian literary scene.Rubem Fonseca is considered one of Brazil's most influential writers, and was awarded the Prémio Camões--considered the Nobel Prize of Portuguese language literature--for his body of work in 2003. That same year he was awarded the Juan Rulfo Prize.Clifford E. Landers has translated many of the great writers of Brazil, including Jorge Amado, João Ubaldo Ribeiro, Patricia Melo, Osman Lins, and Moacyr Scliar among others. He received the Mario Ferreira Award in 1999.

Rubem Fonseca

(Author)

View Author's Page

Rubem Fonseca (Juiz de Fora, Brazil, May 11, 1925 – Rio de Janeiro, April 15, 2020) was one of the most influential writers and screenwriters in contemporary Brazilian literature. Considered a major renovator of narrative in Portuguese, his direct, raw, and uncompromising style masterfully portrayed urban violence, marginality, and the social contradictions of modern Brazil. Before dedicating himself entirely to literature, Fonseca worked as a lawyer and police commissioner in Rio de Janeiro, experiences that deeply marked his work and allowed him to explore human complexity from a unique perspective.

He debuted in 1963 with The Prisoners and gained international notoriety with titles such as Happy New Year, The Collector, The Morel Case, High Art, August, Bufo & Spallanzani, and Vast Emotions and Imperfect Thoughts. His work, essential for dirty realism and Latin American crime literature, has been translated into numerous languages and adapted into films. Fonseca received notable literary awards, including the Camões Prize (2003), the Juan Rulfo Prize (2003), and the Ibero-American Narrative Manuel Rojas Prize (2012), consolidating his legacy as an indispensable reference in Portuguese-language literature.

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