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Joaquim Nogueira Brazil
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Joaquim Nogueira was born in 1940 in the Brazilian state
of Acre as the son of a caoutschouc farmer. He moved to São Paulo in 1960 and
earnt his living as a bricklayer, painter, office assistant and bank employee.
He completed his Law studies in 1983 and worked for the police until his
retirement in 1998.
In his first
novel Informações sobre a vítima (“Information
about the Victim”), Joaquim Nogueira
describes a seemingly dull world in contemporary São Paulo. The investigations
by police inspector Venício, however, lead him to a society which is anything
but dull. Venício learns from a colleague that his friend and fellow policeman,
Antonio Carlos, was killed. Though Venício’s main tasks so far consisted of
locking up drunkards until sober and dealing with minor quarrels of civilian
law, he is convinced that he must take over these investigations and find
“Toninho’s” murderer. The case, however, turns out to be extremely complicated
and as the investigations continue, Venício’s seems to be less the victim than
the culprit...
In
Nogueira’s second novel Vida pregressa (“A
former Life”), Inspector Venício is
put on an exceptionally tricky case in São Paulo once more: this time, he is to
investigate the mysterious disappearance of the hotel owner Anatole France
Castanheira, whom he knows personally. Then a prisoner carrying the same name
is supposedly murdered by a fellow inmate. But how would a friendly hotel owner
like him land in jail? Venício gets hold of the address of Anatole France’s
mistress and finally makes his way to the morgue with her, in order to identify
the body - only to see that it is not Anatole’s...
By means of
the Inspector’s character, Nogueira draws a very realistic and at times
sarcastic picture of São Paulo’s society. Mercilessly he lets him uncover the
criminal structures from which not even the police are
protected.
Represented for Companhia das Letras
Informações
sobre a vítima
São Paulo:
Companhia das Letras 2002, 347 p.
English sample translation available
Vida pregressa,
São Paulo: Companhia das Letras 2003, 373 p.