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Fernando Bonassi Brazil
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Fernando Bonassi,
born in São Paulo in 1962, attended the famous Film Academy in São Paulo. His
short films, documentaries and scripts have won him several prizes. In 1998 he
was a guest of the Artists-in-Residence Programme in
Berlin. Presently he works for Brazilian newspapers like Folha de S.Paulo and magazines.
Bonassi - I do not write to entertain, I write to disturb myself and my
reader - is unafraid to express, in verbal and written form, how he sees
society in his country and the people in his city. His novel Subúrbio was
one of the very first books to come from and deal with the world of the bleak
suburbs which has long since reached the city centres. High walls, electronic
barriers are of little use any more. The world of the privileged few can no
longer cut itself off. What sort of a world is this, asks Bonassi, which
constructs such walls, instead of confronting and combating misery, showing
these people a way out. The novel Um céu de estrelas (“A Sky full of
Stars”) was made into a prize-winning film by Brazilian director Tata Amaral.
That he can also be entertaining he demonstrates in the crime story Crimes
conjugais (“Marital
Crimes”), an exciting, briskly moving story of big city crime.
The novel Prova Contrária (“Counterevidence”) tells the story of
a woman who receives an indemnization from the government since her husband
supposedly disappeared after having been tortured by the military regime. One
day her husband returns... was he really the political hero his wife had
believed him to be?
O menino preso na geladeira (“The Boy
trapped in a Fridge”) has experienced nothing but privation and hollow promises
by a corrupt government in a destroyed country. He therefore builds himself a
large fully equipped fridge and locks himself in, as to isolate himself from
the outside world. After a number of crazy coincidents, however, he suddenly
becomes a national anti-hero. This is an absurd story, which seems to take
place very far away, in truth, however, portrays a well-known reality.
We have here
before us not a sky full of stars
but a young author who in his anger about the prevailing social conditions
writes convincing, compelling prose which is not in the slightest bit interested
in beauty. On the contrary: dry, agitated and cheeky, it represents something
like an ‘aesthetics of the ugly’, if that paradox be permitted.
FOLHA DE S.PAULO
Original editions
(selection) and rights sold:
Novels:
O amor em chamas, São Paulo: Estação
Liberdade 1989, 110 p.
Um céu de estrelas, São Paulo: Siciliano 1991; Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva
2005, 201 p.
1996 SESC Prize, São Paulo, for the best play of a
young author.
Film by Tata Amaral 1996 (Several prizes)
Subúrbio,
São Paulo:Scritta
1994; Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva 2006, 319 p.
April 98 - theatre version at Schauspielhaus Hamburg,
directed by H. Kresnik
France: Moisson Rouge 2008 ● Italy: Atmosphere
Crimes conjugais, São Paulo:
Scritta 1994, 271 p.
O amor é uma dor feliz, São Paulo:
Moderna 1997, 302 p.
O céu e o fundo do mar, Geração Editorial
1999, 126 p.
Prova contrária, Rio de Janeiro:
Objetiva 2003, 97 p.
Film rights sold
O menino preso na geladeira, Rio de Janeiro:
Objetiva 2004, 218 p.
Short prose and texts for young readers:
100 histórias colhidas na rua, São Paulo:
Scritta 1996, 207 p.
Tá louco!, São Paulo:
Moderna 1996, 176 p.
Uma carta para Deus, Belo
Horizonte: Formato 1997, 26 p.
Germany: (Anthology) Kinder ohne Kindheit Sauerländer
2006
100 coisas, São Paulo: Angra
2000, 109 p.
Spain: Moment Angular 2004 (Catalan)
A incrível história de Naidinho (Um
bandidão ou anjinho?),
São Paulo: Geração Editorial 2001, 23 p.
Declaração universal do moleque
invocado,
São Paulo: Cosac & Naify 2001, 24 p.
Pasaporte, São Paulo: Cosac & Naify 2001, 139 p.
São Paulo/Brasil, Belo Horizonte: Dimensão 2002, 105 p.
O pequeno fascista, São Paulo: Cosac & Naify 2005, 59 p.
(Ill. by Daniel Bueno)
Diário da Guerra de São Paulo, São Paulo: Publifolha 2007, 104 p.
Participation in anthologies:
Brasilien berättar: Ljud av steg, Stockholm: Tranan 2011