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Rubem Fonseca. A Grande Arte 1983. (Eng. High Art, 1986)
Nelida Pinon. A Republica dos Sonhos 1984. (Eng. The Republic of Dreams, 1989)
Joao Ubaldo Ribeiro. Viva o Po vo Brasileiro (Long Live the Brazilian People). 1984.
Paulo Coelho. 0 Alquimista 1988. (Eng. The Alchemist)
Chico Buarque de Hollanda. Estorvo (Hindrance). 1991.
Aramis Ribeiro Costa. Uma Varanda para o Jardim (A Verandah Onto the Flower Garden). 1991.
Patricia Melo. O Matador (The Killer). 1997.
Deonisio da Silva. Teresa 1997
Sergio Sant'Anna. Um Crime Delicado 9 (A Delicate Crime). :1997.
Moacyr Scliar. A Mulher que Escreveu a Biblia (The Woman Who Wrote the Bible). 2000.
SPECIAL RECOGNITION: Jorge Amado. Tocaia Grande (Big Ambush). 1984.
Brazil Not for Beginners
PERHAPS ONE OF the most challenging tasks to be given to a literary critic is that of compiling a list of the best works of a certain region of the world. He or she will find this to be particularly true if given an assignment to cover the literature of a country endowed with such a rich variety of regional and urban literatures as is the case with Brazil. Finding what some may call a "national" literature in a country of such complexity is almost impossible. The Brazilian composer Antonio Carlos Jobim was once asked during an interview to explain the roots of Brazilian music. After giving a very lengthy reply, Jobim concluded with the following words of wisdom: "As you see," he told the mesmerized interviewer, "Brazil is not for beginners." And if its music or any other form of artistic expression, for that matter - is not for beginners, neither is its literature.
Although my "top ten novels" list for the past twenty years is presented in chronological order according to the year of first publication of each work, it coincidentally starts out with a writer many critics consider to be the very best postmodern representative of Brazilian literature. In the words of the American critic James Polk, "Rubem Fonseca is a writer of joyful excess." His masterpiece High Art has been translated into a rapid-fire English which seems to compensate for the work's many different rhetorical levels. High Art is a masterpiece of the mystery narrative. But more than that, it has become a paradigm...