 |
|
Zeinal Bava, chief executive
of PT, and Pilar Del Rio
(Photos by Luciana Prezia) |
The ceremony of the PT Literature Award 2010 was held yesterday at Casa Fasano, in São Paulo, Brazil, and took Chico Buarque onto the stage to receive the first prize, worth Real 100,000 (circa €42,400).
“Outra Vida” by Rodrigo Lacerda got second, receiving a prize worth Real 35,000 (circa €15,000), and Armando Freitas Filho got the third prize, worth Real 15,000 (circa €6,300) with his book “Lar”.
 |
Chico Buarque, winner of the PT
Literature Award 2010, and Jô Soares |
The other finalists of this year were: “A passagem tensa dos corpos”, by Carlos Brito e Mello, “Avó Dezanove e o Segredo do Soviético”, by Ondjaki, “Monodrama”, by Carlito Azevedo, “O filho da mãe”, by Bernardo Carvalho, “Olhos secos”, by Bernardo Ajzenberg, and “Pornopopeia”, by Reinaldo Moraes.
The Nobel Literature Prize 1998, José Saramago, deceased last July, was honoured in the evening of 8 November, with the presence of Pilar del Rio, his wife, and of his great friend, the Brazilian writer Nélida Piñon. It is worth recollecting that by unanimous decision of the Saramago Foundation and of Companhia das Letras, editor of this writer in Brazil, his book “Caim”, which was among the ten finalists of the Literature Award, was withdrawn from the list. This was a decision that was in accordance with the intention of the PT Award of honouring the Portuguese writer for his life and work, and of demonstrating the recognition for all those that contributed to dignifying the name of Portugal and in this case of the Portuguese language.
 |
|
Luis Swarcz (editor of Armando Freitas Filho), Zeinal Bava, Chico Buarque, Pilar del Rio and Rodrigo Lacerda |
It is worth highlighting that this Literature Award, promoted by Portugal Telecom, aims to contribute to maintaining the Portuguese language dynamic and relevant. In its 8th edition, the initiative comprised works of literature namely romance, tale, poetry, chronicle, dramaturgy and autobiography written in Portuguese language and published in Brazil during 2009.
Learn more about the prize at: http://www.premioportugaltelecom.com.br/2010/index.asp.
The winners of the PT Literature Award 2010
“Leite Derramado”, by Chico Buarque (Companhia das Letras)
In his fourth romance, writer Chico Buarque created another striking character. After the anonymous narrator of Estorvo, photographic model Benjamin Zambraia and ghost writer José Costa, now it is the turn of an old man with more than one hundred years of age, who cannot leave his hospital bed, from where he is narrating, to whoever wishes to listen, the story of his life. The firm hand of the writer does not slip one single minute and mounts a real puzzle, with pieces of memories spread throughout 200 pages. The first narrating line is the story of the narrator, Eulálio d’Assumpção, with his wife Matilde, who at a certain time of the book, vanishes with her brunette colour, smell, dance, beauty and mystery. And the background is Brazil, going through the time of the Empire, Republic, military dictatorship, up to current days.
“Outra vida”, by Rodrigo Lacerda (Alfaguara)
“Outra vida”, is the fourth romance by Rio-born Rodrigo Lacerda. The writer, without abandoning the characteristic humour of his narratives, seeks to deal with contemporaneous life from the story of a small family nucleus, formed by a man, a woman and a five year old daughter. The dramatic action takes place in a bus station, with the entire family waiting for the arrival of a bus, which will take them back to the seaside city where they came from. It will be the beginning of a new life after a difficult period at the big city when the husband got involved in a corruption scheme. Family, ethical issues, uncertain love destiny: with such elements, Lacerda makes a strong portrait of contemporaneous Brazilian life.
“Lar”, by Armando Freitas Filho (Companhia das Letras)
In his work “Lar”, poet Armando Freitas Filho, one of the most prominent names of Brazilian poetry, privileges memory as a central element for the construction of his poems. The comma after the title is a game of poetic possibilities: it is as if from such initial cell (Lar), the poet stopped, suspended his speech, to compose his memories afterwards. As the author even said, this is his “Boitempo”, as a reference to the cycle of poems of memoirs of Carlos Drummond de Andrade. The scattered pieces depict the boy’s life oppressed by the typical bourgeois universe of the fifties in Rio de Janeiro, from home to school, church and the beach.