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2025 Longlist

Out of Earth

Translated from the Portuguese
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ABOUT
THE BOOK

This remarkable Brazilian novel has been garlanded with multiple accolades since its initial publication as Desesterro, including the prestigious Sesc Prize for Literature, the Machado de Assis award, the Jabuti award, and the Republic of Consciousness Prize for Outstanding First Novel. The story follows four generations of female characters as they navigate the hardships of life in the parched landscape of the Brazilian sertão. Male figures are peripheral, but are also revealed as the origin of much of the suffering in the novel, generating for the women a kind of exile not only in relation to the land but to their sense of self.

ABOUT
THE AUTHOR Sheyla
Smanioto

Sheyla Smanioto was born in 1990 into a working-class family in Diadema, São Paulo state, which was then the most violent town in Brazil. In 2017 she was selected by Forbes magazine as one of the people under 30 making a difference in Brazil. She has won the SESC, Biblioteca Nacional, Jabutí, and Republic of Consciousness Outstanding First Novel prizes, as well as being shortlisted for the São Paulo literature prize. She has twice received grants from Itaú Cultural fund to assist her writing.

Sheyla Smanioto was born in 1990 into a working-class family in Diadema, São Paulo state, which was then the most violent town in Brazil. In 2017 she was selected by Forbes magazine as one of the people under 30 making a difference in Brazil. She has won the SESC, Biblioteca Nacional, Jabutí, and Republic of Consciousness Outstanding First Novel prizes, as well as being shortlisted for the São Paulo literature prize. She has twice received grants from Itaú Cultural fund to assist her writing.

ABOUT
THE TRANSLATOR Sophie
Lewis

Sophie Lewis is a London-born translator and editor. Working from French and Portuguese, she has translated books by Stendhal, Jules Verne, Marcel Aymé, Violette Leduc, Leïla Slimani, Noémi Lefebvre, Nastassja Martin and Annie Ernaux, also Sheyla Smanioto, Victor Heringer and Patrícia Melo, among others. Recent edits include books by Jeferson Tenório, Lucrecia Zappi and Fábio Zuker. With Gitanjali Patel, she co-founded the Shadow Heroes translation workshops enterprise. Lewis’s translations have been shortlisted for the Scott Moncrieff and Republic of Consciousness prizes, and longlisted for the International Booker Prize. In 2022, she won the French-American Foundation’s prize for non-fiction translation.

Sophie Lewis is a London-born translator and editor. Working from French and Portuguese, she has translated books by Stendhal, Jules Verne, Marcel Aymé, Violette Leduc, Leïla Slimani, Noémi Lefebvre, Nastassja Martin and Annie Ernaux, also Sheyla Smanioto, Victor Heringer and Patrícia Melo, among others. Recent edits include books by Jeferson Tenório, Lucrecia Zappi and Fábio Zuker. With Gitanjali Patel, she co-founded the Shadow Heroes translation workshops enterprise. Lewis’s translations have been shortlisted for the Scott Moncrieff and Republic of Consciousness prizes, and longlisted for the International Booker Prize. In 2022, she won the French-American Foundation’s prize for non-fiction translation.

ABOUT
THE TRANSLATOR Laura
Garmeson

Laura Garmeson is a writer and translator from Portuguese and French. Her writing has appeared in the Financial Times, the Times Literary Supplement, Asymptote and The Economist, among other publications. Her translation work has been shortlisted for the Republic of Consciousness Prize. She is based in London.

Laura Garmeson is a writer and translator from Portuguese and French. Her writing has appeared in the Financial Times, the Times Literary Supplement, Asymptote and The Economist, among other publications. Her translation work has been shortlisted for the Republic of Consciousness Prize. She is based in London.

NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS

Poetic and imaginative, the novel brings 04 generation of women on the scene to explore violence, migration, and the relation between it all with nature. It also creates beautiful images of the Brazilian Sertão.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Date published
31/07/2023
Country
Brazil
Original Language
Portuguese
Publisher
Boiler House Press
Translator
Sophie Lewis, Laura Garmeson
Translation
Translated from the Portuguese
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