Dive into the vibrant culture, history, and spirit of Brazil with these 5 Great Brazilian Books Everyone Should Read. <\/p>\n
This post may contain affiliate links that earn us a commission at no extra cost to you.<\/em><\/p>\n When Gabriela came to the Brazilian town of Ilheus, things would never be the same again In 1925, the town\u2019s cacao plantations are flourishing and progress reigns, but Nacib the Arab\u2019s most desperate worry is that his cook has walked out of his bar. He ventures over to the market to hire a migrant worker to help him and comes across a young mulatto girl named Gabriela who is wild and has hair filthy with dust. <\/p>\n But something in her voice makes him take a chance, and it seems he\u2019s not the only man who\u2019s noticed her. Suddenly there is more to think about than everyday concerns: love affairs, murder, banquets, funerals, desire, hatred, vengeance and miracles.<\/p>\n G.H., a well-to-do Rio sculptress, enters the room of her maid, which is as clear and white \u2018as in an insane asylum from which dangerous objects have been removed\u2019. There she sees a cockroach \u2013 black, dusty, prehistoric \u2013 crawling out of the wardrobe and, panicking, slams the door on it. Her irresistible fascination with the dying insect provokes a spiritual crisis, in which she questions her place in the universe and her very identity, propelling her towards an act of shocking transgression. <\/p>\n Clarice Lispector\u2019s spare, deeply disturbing yet luminous novel transforms language into something otherworldly, and is one of her most unsettling and compelling works.<\/p>\n Brilliant physician Sim\u00e3o Bacamarte sacrifices a prestigious career to return home and dedicate himself to the budding field of psychology. Bacamarte opens the first asylum in Brazil hoping to crown himself and his hometown with \u201cimperishable laurels.\u201d But the doctor begins to see signs of insanity in more and more of his neighbors.\u2006.\u2006.\u2006.<\/p>\n With dark humor and sparse prose, The Alienist lets the reader ponder who is really crazy.<\/p>\n Set in the great Brazilian port of Manaus during the golden decades of the Rubber Boom in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, this is the story of identical twin brothers who battle for the love of their mother. It is also a vivid and surprising portrait of a city built over the confluence of two great rivers in the middle of the Amazon rainforest, and the novel itself is full of eddies, dangerous undertows and shifting surface reflections. While recounting the fortunes and trials of this Lebanese immigrant family over many decades,<\/p>\n Santiago, a young shepherd living in the hills of Andalucia, feels that there is more to life than his humble home and his flock. One day he finds the courage to follow his dreams into distant lands, each step galvanised by the knowledge that he is following the right path: his own. The people he meets along the way, the things he sees and the wisdom he learns are life-changing.<\/p>\n With Paulo Coelho\u2019s visionary blend of spirituality, magical realism and folklore, The Alchemist is a story with the power to inspire nations and change people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n Brazilian Literature unfortunately still has a lack of English translated work, The Devil to Pay in the Backlands by Jo\u00e3o Guimar\u00e3es Rosa is one that would have featured on this list but for a readily available translation. <\/p>\n5 Great Brazilian Books Everyone Should Read<\/h2>\n
Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon by Jorge Amado<\/h2>\n
The Passion According to G.H. by Clarice Lispector<\/h2>\n
The Alienist by Machado de Assis<\/h2>\n
The Brothers by Milton Hatoum<\/h2>\n
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho<\/h2>\n