ABOUT
THE BOOK

Translated from the original Portuguese by Alison Entrekin

2015 Longlist

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.

(From Publisher)

About the Author

Brazilian author Adriana Lisboa was born in Rio de Janeiro. She has published eleven books, among which six novels, a collection of short stories and prose poetry, and books for children. Her work has been translated into English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Swedish, Romanian and Serbian, and will shortly appear also in Arabic.

Among her honors are the José Saramago Award for her novel Symphony in White, a Japan Foundation Fellowship her novel Hut of Fallen Persimmons, a fellowship from the Brazilian National Library, and the Newcomer of the Year Award from the Brazilian section of IBBY (the International Board on Books for Young People). In 2007, Hay Festival/Bogota World Book Capital selected her as one of the thirty-nine highest profile Latin American writers under the age of thirty-nine. She currently resides in the US.

Librarian’s 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.