A grieving film director in Rio is visited by a carnival dancer who leaves him with a box full of precious gems. A few days later the dancer is dead, a man in a raincoat lurks outside the director's door, and a mysterious German producer surfaces with an irresistible offer: to make a film based on a story by the director's favorite author, the great Russian writer Isaac Babel. From this elemental framework the adventure begins.Dodging a horde of local smugglers, the director soon finds himself fleeing to Berlin, where a web of literary and political skulduggery awaits him. Rumor has it that an unpublished Babel manuscript has survived the Stalinist purges and is now being shopped by a lovesick Soviet bureaucrat. Forsaking caution, money, and at times his own sanity, the director makes a foray into East Berlin in pursuit of the one true thing that still stirs his heart. Already a bestseller in Italy, Mexico, and his native Brazil, Rubem Fonseca's newest novel is a rollicking adventure into the high camp world of carnival, the intricate history of precious gems, and the subtle craft of filmmaking. It is also a piercing account of a man whose life is resurrected by art just when tragedy threatens to paralyze him.
Author
He is an important brazilian writer (novelist, short story writer and screenwriter), born in Juiz de Fora, state of Minas Gerais, but he lived for most of his life in Rio de Janeiro. In 1952, he started his career in the police and became a policy commissioner. Even though, he refuses to do interviews and is a very reclusive person, much like Thomas Pynchon, who is a personal friend of Fonseca. His writing is pretty dark and gritty, filled with violence and sexual content, and it usually happens in a very urban setting. He says that a writer should have the courage to show what most people are afraid to say. His work is considered groundbreaking in Brazilian literature, up until then mostly focused on rural settings and usually treating cities with a very biased point-of-view. Almost all Brazilian contemporary writers acknowledge Fonseca's importance, and quite a few authors from the newer generation, such as Patrícia Melo or Luis Ruffato, say that he's a huge influence. He started his career with short stories, and they are usually considered to be the best part of his work. His first popular novel was "A Grande Arte" (High Art), but "Agosto" is usually considered to be his best work. In 2003, he won the Camões Prize - considered to be the most important award in the Portuguese language - and the Juan Rulfo Prize - award for Latin American and the Caribbean literature.
