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2015 Longlist

Crow Blue

Translated from the original Portuguese by Alison Entrekin

ABOUT
THE BOOK

I was thirteen. Being thirteen is like being in the middle of nowhere. Which was accentuated by the fact that I was in the middle of nowhere. In a house that wasn’t mine. in a city that wasn’t mine, in a country that wasn’t mine, with a one-man family that, in spite of the intersections and intentions (all very good), wasn’t mine.

When her mother dies, thirteen-year-old Vanja is left with no family and no sense of who she is, where she belongs, and what she should do. Determined to find her biological father to fill the void that has so suddenly appeared in her life, Vanja decides to leave Rio de Janeiro to live in Colorado with her stepfather, a former guerrilla notorious for his violent past. From there she goes in search of her biological father, tracing her mother’s footsteps and gradually discovering the truth about herself.

Rendered in lyrical and passionate prose, Crow Blue is a literary road trip through Brazil and America, and through dark decades of family and political history.

 

ABOUT
THE AUTHOR Adriana
Lisboa

Adriana Lisboa was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1970. She has published, among other books, the novels Symphony in White (winner of the José Saramago Award), Crow Blue (chosen a book of the year by The Independent) and Hut of Fallen Persimmons (winner of a Japan Foundation Fellowship). She has also published poetry collections, short stories, and books for children. Her poems and stories have appeared in Modern Poetry in Translation, Asymptote, Granta, and Revista Casa de las Américas, among others. Her books have been published in more than twenty countries.

Adriana has a MA in Brazilian Literature and a PhD in Comparative Literature from Rio de Janeiro State University. She was a visiting scholar at The International Research Center for Japanese Studies (Nichibunken) in Kyoto, and at the University of New Mexico, as well as writer in residence at the University of California Berkeley. She has taught at the University of Texas at Austin, at the Spanish and Portuguese Department. 

She has lived in France, New Zealand and the United States – where she currently resides, in Austin, Texas.

Adriana Lisboa was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1970. She has published, among other books, the novels Symphony in White (winner of the José Saramago Award), Crow Blue (chosen a book of the year by The Independent) and Hut of Fallen Persimmons (winner of a Japan Foundation Fellowship). She has also published poetry collections, short stories, and books for children. Her poems and stories have appeared in Modern Poetry in Translation, Asymptote, Granta, and Revista Casa de las Américas, among others. Her books have been published in more than twenty countries.

Adriana has a MA in Brazilian Literature and a PhD in Comparative Literature from Rio de Janeiro State University. She was a visiting scholar at The International Research Center for Japanese Studies (Nichibunken) in Kyoto, and at the University of New Mexico, as well as writer in residence at the University of California Berkeley. She has taught at the University of Texas at Austin, at the Spanish and Portuguese Department. 

She has lived in France, New Zealand and the United States – where she currently resides, in Austin, Texas.

NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS

Borrowing from Dot Scribbles blog: “Adriana Lisboa deposits a tapestry of transient lives lived between borders and the ties that bind people across nations. Rendered in lyrical and passionate prose, Crow Blue is a sweeping literary road trip through Brazil and America, and through decades of family and political history.” A beautiful book. Lisboa is recipient of multiple awards and prizes. Living now in the USA, this is her first UK publication.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Date published
08/07/2014
Country
Brazil
Original Language
Portuguese
Publisher
Bloomsbury
Translator
Alison Entrekin
Translation
Translated from the original Portuguese by Alison Entrekin

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