Seven essential books to explore the work of Sérgio Sant’Anna



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RIO – Throughout his 50-year career, Sérgio Sant’Anna has established himself as one of the best stories in Brazilian literature. Adept at aesthetic experimentalism, the writer attracted generations of loyal readers with his cunning gaze that went far beyond formalism, with stories that broke the gender barrier and revealed the nature of his overly human characters.

Storytelling:Sérgio Sant’Anna, one of the main Brazilian writers, dies at the age of 78, a victim of the coronavirus.

But Sant’Anna’s work went beyond the story, with novels adapted for film, an award-winning novel, and even a cult text as a playwright. Then, review seven books to learn about the author’s work.

“Ralfo’s Confessions” (1975)

With the subtitle “An Imaginary Autobiography,” the writer’s first novel has already signaled his appreciation for being a formal pioneer, with deliberately confused prose creating unlikely stories about the narrator.

FarewellsSérgio Sant’anna “was an author in constant boiling”, says Marcelino Freire

“João Gilberto concert in Rio de Janeiro” (1982)

One of its most famous collections of short stories, the Jabuti Prize-winning book presents Sant’Anna’s writing in its splendor, as in the title story, which mixes music, literature and theater while recreating all the noise and mystique of silence. That was around the figure of the Bossa Nova pioneer.

“Amazon” (1986)

Through the protagonist Dionísia, an ordinary woman from Rio who became a model for a pornographic magazine and a political personality known in the 1980s, the soap opera narrates the filth and anguish of an entire country that is still in the process of redemocratization . Jabuti award winner.

Cover
Cover of “Amazona”, a novel by Sérgio Sant’Anna Photo: Disclosure

“A delicate crime” (1997)

Adapted by Beto Brant for film in 2005, the novel is narrated by a middle-aged art critic who engages with a mysterious and lame young woman. Also a Jabuti winner, the book mixes love story, police narrative, and observations on criticism and the art universe.

“The Flight of Dawn” (2003)

In the book’s 16 short stories, the reader delves into reflections and hallucinations about sex, death and desire, always guided by the formal experiments of Sant’Anna’s skillful pen.

“The Prague Book” (2011)

Part of the “Amores expressos” collection, by Companhia das Letras, the work brings together seven “stories of love and art”, as the subtitle says, accompanying the journey of the character Antônio Fernandes to the capital of the Czech Republic.

“The man-woman” (2014)

Launched when Sant’Anna was 72 years old, the 19-story collection shows that the writer maintained his narrative vigor until the end of his career. In addition to the title text, the book features stories like “Lencinhos” and “Eles dois”, an impressive love and nostalgia story about a couple who shared a house on the outskirts of Belo Horizonte during the 1970s.

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