Ferréz Brazil

© Almeida Rocha

Ferréz (Reginaldo Ferreira da Silva) was born in São Paulo in 1975. He left school early and started working. His earliest reading experience was a discarded comic he found. Later he started buying second-hand books and ever since he had discovered Hermann Hesse’s Glass Bead Game, Hesse has been his favourite writer.

Literature, scarcely known about in the quarter the author grew up in, became his passion, and he himself became a famous author with the novels Capão Pecado (“Sinful Capão”) and Manual prático do ódio (“Practical Handbook of Hatred”), the latter a punch in the stomach, as one critic wrote. The books make us sit up and take notice. The setting is Capão Redondo, a violent quarter on the periphery of the megalopolis of São Paulo, where the author grew up and still lives today. Clearly evident is the influence of hip-hop and rap, which are important components of the culture of the periphery of São Paulo, as well as of the favelas in Rio de Janeiro. In 1999 Ferréz set up an initiative to promote cultural projects in these outskirts. He and his companions aim to counter the dominant image transmitted by the police and the media of violence, drugs and alcohol in the poor districts with an image of dignity and self-awareness. They feel responsible for those who are unable to speak up for themselves. Ferréz is determined to be uncomfortable, to draw attention. Under a photograph of a young boy in Capão Pecado we read: Here died justice, but not hope.

In 2002 Ferréz was awarded the prestigious Arts Critics’ Association of S.Paulo Prize (APCA) for the best magazine project of 2001, Literatura Marginal (Literature from the Outskirts), which carries texts and drawings from the periphery.

A new culture is born from the outside in. In literature Paulo Lins, Ferréz and Fernando Bonassi tell the story of the invisible social war that has established itself in Brazil.

Folha de S. Paulo

Capão Pecado is a post-card from the other side of the world.

Jornal da Tarde

Capão Pecado is unique within the whole of our national tradition of fiction.

Veja

The language is that of the ghetto... the setting is for real. Most of the characters, likewise. It's a book to astonish. Most of all because there's everything in it, everything that comes from the other side of the João Dias Bridge.

Marcelo Rubens Paiva, Folha de S. Paulo

Original editions and rights sold:

Novels:

Capão Pecado, São Paulo: Labortexto 2000, 172 p.

Portugal: Palavra 2005

Manual prático do ódio, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva 2003, 253 p.

(Film rights sold)

Argentina: Corregidor ● France: Anacaona 2009 ● Italy: Fazi 2006 ● Mexico: Avra Ediciones ● Portugal: Palavra 2006 ● Spain: Edicions 62 2006

Stories:

Ninguém é inocente em São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva 2006, 91 p.

Short Prose:

Cronista de um tempo ruim, São Paulo: Selo Povo 2009, 123 p.

For children:

Amanhecer Esmeralda, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva 2005, 47 p.

(Illustrations by Igor Machado)