A extinção das abelhas
The extinction of bees
by Natalia Borges Polesso
Companhia das Letras, 2021
312 pages
14×21 cm
Jabuti award-winning author Natalia Borges Polesso’s second novel, The Extinction of Bees is a deep exploration of solitude. A brutal story about a woman, a cat and a collapsing world.
The Extinction of Bees, which tells the story of Regina: she was raised by her father, who died when the girl was entering adulthood. Her neighbors, Eugênia and Denise, do their best to care for her, offering affection, money and the family life she misses so much. With them there’s Aline, the couple’s daughter, Regina’s friend, as close as a sister.
Regina’s perspective of changing her life is small. So, after seeing an internet ad for cam girls, she decides to try her luck. She covers her face with a gorilla mask — left behind by the mother who abandoned her as a child — and embodies a side of herself she didn’t know. By exposing herself to strangers and revolving these men’s desires and shames, she faces here own feelings, ghosts buried long ago in her subconscious.
Creating a universe as dystopian as its real, with a gallery of impressive characters ranging from tragicomic old lady Mrs. Norma to brave Aline, Natalia Borges Polesso shows her narrative prowess and builds a story about collapse and salvation.
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«Natalia Borges Polesso is an urgent writer, a definite, strong and essential voice in our literature, because she talks about what was long silenced, because, through individual stories, she talks about a search that’s universal: who are we, and in what world do we want to live?»
Carola Saavedra, Brazilian writer
«Polesso offers a poignant look at women alternately broken down and resilient.»
Publishers Weekly
«A rising Brazilian writer who deserves to be on all our lists.»
Book Riot
Finalist of the Prêmio São Paulo 2022
Finalist of the Prêmio Jabuti 2022
Rights available in all territories
Represented in collaboration with MTS Agência
Natalia Borges Polesso is a Brazilian writer and journalist and a PhD in Literary Theory. Her third short story collection, Amora – an exploration of the many different shades of homoaffective relations between women – won the Jabuti Prize 2016.The rights of Amora were sold to Argentina (Odelia), Spain (Raspabook) and USA (Amazon Crossing). In 2017 she was named among the Bogota39, a list of the most promising young writers in Latin America. Her short stories appeared on Electric Magazine, Bogotá39: Nuevas voces de ficcion lationoamericana and Latin American Literature Today. Controle is her firs novel.
* For any info about Natalia Borges Polesso’s other publications please contact us at info@redondobooks.com *
