Marrom e Amarelo
Brown and Yellow
by Paulo Scott
Alfaguara, 2019
155 pages
23,2×14,4 cm
Marrom e Amarelo is the story of two brothers whose skins have different colors, and of how they deal differently with discrimination in a turmoiled Brazil that looks much like our today’s societies.
Federico and Lourenço are two brothers. Federico’s skin is light colored, while Lourenço’s is dark brown. They both grew up in a poor neighborhood in Porto Alegre under the constant pressure of racial discrimination. While Lourenço tries to face it with ease, Federico becomes a passionate activist for the cause.
When he’s 49, Federico is summoned by Brazil’s new government to take part to a commission that will discuss racial quotas in universities. In the middle of the debate about the quotas, two private events in Federico’s life force him to leave the commission and go back to Porto Alegre, where his family still lives.
Going back to Porto Alegre, and having to face his family matters as well as the State’s complex and nebulous legal machinery, awakens in Federico the unsolved conflicts of his past, and the color of his skin becomes once again a way to understand what’s happening around him, affecting his personal life and the society he lives in.
Marrom e Amarelo is a unique novel in contemporary Brazilian literature. It depicts a tumultuous Brazil, spanning from the passiveness of the political establishment to the chronical racial tensions at all levels of society. This novel describes racism in a sharp and effective way, bringing us into the abysses of the Brazilian society, and of our own.
Here you can download an English BOOK PROFILE
Selected as one of 19 titles to win the flagship translation awards of the English PEN 2020
Finalist of the Prêmio Jabuti 2020
Finalist of the Premio São Paulo 2020
Rights sold: 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.
