Habitante irreal
Nowhere people
by Paulo Scott
Alfaguara, 2012
264 pages
15×23 cm
Paulo, a young Brazilian activist, meets the young native Maina, and feels the need to help her. Their brief romance will mark their destinies and that of their son, Donato.
Twenty-one years old Paulo is disappointed by his country’s social and political conscience after a long military dictatorship. Porto Alegre, as the rest of Brazil, is struggling to find its way back to democracy in the middle of an unstoppable hyperinflation as the whole country is living in a state of chaos.
When he meets the young native Maina, by casually giving her a ride, Paulo feel the immediate need to help her. Their brief romance will mark their destinies: Maina will kill herself while Paulo will move to London, where he will be involved in the underground movement and will become a well-known squatter.
The legacy of Paulo and Maina will be embodied by their son Donato. Raised by a young couple of scholars constantly arguing, Donato seems to be ready for a brilliant academic career. He instead chooses to wear native clothes and to perform mute happenings in the middle of the city, to remind passers-by about the daily condition of a big part of the Brazilian population.
With sudden shifts in the characters’ lives, this novel takes in the whole story: telling of love, loss and family, it spans the worlds of São Paulo’s rich kids and dispossessed Guarani Indians along Brazil’s highways. Since the 70s, no one had given this much attention to the native question, and never had it been given voice to the women of the native community. Scott highlights the Brazilian natives’ difficult, at once confused and inevitable, relation with the urban reality that besieges them.
Written from the gut, Habitante irreal is a raw and passionate classic in the making, about our need for a home.
Here you can download an English BOOK PROFILE
Winner of the Machado de Assis Prize 2012
Finalist of the Prêmio Jabuti and of the Premio São Paulo de Literatura
Rights sold: Germany (Wagenbach), World English (And Other Stories), Portugal (Tinta da China)
Rights available: Italy
Represented in collaboration with Mertin Literary Agency
Paulo Scott is a Brazilian writer. He works as writer, scriptwriter and cultural journalist. He published five novels, a collection of short stories, seven poetry collections and a theatrical script. He participated to several literary prizes, like the Machado de Assis Prize, the Jabuti Prize, the Premio Portugal Telecom Literature Prize, the Premio São Paulo de Literatura and the Dublin Literary Award. The short stories collected in Ainda orangotangos (Livros do Mal 2003, Bertrand Brasil 2007) were adapted for cinema and won the 2008 Milano Film Festival.
