You might not see all the authors or works you would like to see on this list. I’ve skipped the famous Paulo Coelho and his well-known The Alchemist in favor of novels the casual reader is less likely to know. Some fantastic books by Brazilian authors were written in English, so they aren’t “in translation” — for example, graphic novel Daytripper by Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá. And, as with all of these lists, there were authors I had to leave off the list because they either weren’t translated or their work was no longer in print — for example, I spent quite a while trying to find book-length translations of the work of Lygia Fagundes Telles, who was Brazil’s official nominee for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2016, and who many consider to be Brazil’s greatest living writer. Over the past month, I did research, visited my local library, and read a big stack of books to discover this list of 14 Brazilian books available in English translation. Enjoy! Please note that while I took great care to list content warnings where I could, sometimes things fall through the cracks. Please do additional research on the recommended titles if needed. Want more books in translation content? I have lists for you of books in translation from Catalonia, Argentina, France, Mexico, Central Africa, Japan, and Southeastern Europe. If you have recommendations or requests for future lists of books in translation, or if you want me to know about a book I might have missed, let me know on Twitter. Content warnings for mob violence, domestic violence, fatphobia, anti-Blackness, r-slur, substance abuse, rape, child abuse. Content warnings for mentions of drug use, violence. Content warnings for suicide, overdose, homophobic language, self-harm, BDSM, a person being outed. Content warnings for violence, hunger, abuse, torture, trauma, antisemitism, Holocaust narrative. Content warnings for abusive relationship, suicide mention, obsession, sexism, domestic violence, g-slur. Content warnings for prostitution, poverty, drugs, corruption, alcoholism, substance abuse, violence. Content warnings for drug use, grief, slavery, sexism, violence, racism. Content warnings for suicidal ideation, emotional abuse and manipulation, sex shaming. Content warnings for sexism, suicide, sexual assault, manipulation, abortion/miscarriage. Content warnings for mental illness, forced institutionalization. Content warnings for police brutality, racism, suicide, substance abuse, Islamophobic comment, r-slur, ableism. Content warnings for violence, homophobia, suicidal ideation, sex shaming, age gap/grooming, racism, domestic violence, use of the g-slur, misogynoir, fatphobia, sexual assault, and rape.
