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Nelson Motta Brazil
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Nelson Motta was born in São Paulo in
1944 and now lives in Rio de Janeiro. He is a journalist, composer, producer
and one of the most knowledgeable aficionados
of Brazilian música popular. Motta has
published several books on Brazilian popular music. NOITES TROPICAIS (“Tropical Nights”) is his most successful with
over 80.000 copies sold.
O canto da Sereia (“Sereia’s Song”): Anything
can happen in Bahia, according to Nelson Motta. The Trios Elétricos, Bahia’s carnival floats, are gliding along
the streets, when Sereia, a 23-year old pop star, is
fatally shot while performing on one of the carriages.
The novel’s narrator is Agostinho
Matoso, short Augustão, a
private detective who was responsible for Sereia’s
safety during her performance and now aims to shed light on her death. The
setting is Bahia and its carnival – nothing like its counterpart in Rio de
Janeiro – the political intrigues leading up to the forthcoming governor’s
election and Afro-Brazilian rituals spread across the whole social stratum. Gay
impresario Tuta Tavares not only endorses the
candidate for the governor’s post by all means imaginable, but had also
invested large sums of money to make a pop star out of Sereia,
then an inconspicuous young lady from the back-country. She has become the
product of a clever marketing campaign and is at the height of her career when
she is murdered. The author knows the ropes of showbiz, and of Bahia. The novel
presents a compact scenario, pillared by the suspense of a murder which may not
have been one.
Bandidos e Mocinhas (“Bad Boys and Good Girls”): Rio de Janeiro at the
turn of the millennium. Lana is a moderately
successful actress until she meets the cultured and wealthy George Baker. He
asks her to pretend to be his late wife Nora, offering good money. After a
while they fall in love and marry. When Lana decides to take the leading role
in a play featuring scandalous sex scenes, George files for divorce. Shortly
afterwards, Lana suddenly dies onstage... A gripping story set against the
backdrop of Rio de Janeiro, where the paths of showbiz and the drug scene,
more-or-less well-behaved citizens and cunning bandits, cross.
In Ao som do mar e à luz
do céu profundo (“To the
Sound of the Sea and the Light of the Deep Blue Sky”), Nelson Motta skilfully
mixes love, suspense, eroticism and humour. When Carol, an American girl mad
about soccer, carnival and perfume, comes to Copacabana, she turns life upside
down in Bairro Peixoto.
Between Bossa Nova, Twist and Marchinhas,
tender feelings start to blossom in the last glorious days of the Rio de
Janeiro of the 1960s.
Noites Tropicais is particularly appealing since it was
written by an industry insider who has maintained close personal and
professional relationships with the most important figures of Brazilian popular
music since the advent of Bossa Nova over forty years
ago. In each section, popular music offers a window into the broader cultural,
social, and political contexts of Brazil.
Christopher Dunn
Novels:
O canto da sereia
Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva 2002, 265 p.
Bandidos e mocinhas
Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva 2004, 254 p.
Ao som do mar e à luz do céu profundo
Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva 2006, 281 p.
Italy: Semilla
Stories:
Força estranha
Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva 2009, 152 p.
Essays:
Noites tropicais
Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva 2000, 461 p.
English sample translation
available
Italian translation available
Biography:
Vale Tudo – o som
e a fúria de Tim Maia
Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva 2006, 389 p.