Raduan Nassar (born November 27, 1935, in

Pindorama Pindorama () is a municipality in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. The name is Tupi for ''Land of the Palms'', the natives name for Brazil. According to tradition, before colonisation "Pindorama" (Tupi for "Land of the Palms") was the native name ...

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for ' Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the Ga ...

) is a Brazilian writer. The son of Lebanese immigrants, he moved to

when he was a teenager. He studied Law and Philosophy at the

University of São Paulo The University of São Paulo ( pt, Universidade de São Paulo, USP) is a public university in the Brazilian state of São Paulo. It is the largest Brazilian public university and the country's most prestigious educational institution, the bes ...

. In 1970, he wrote ''Um Copo de Cólera'', published in 1978. His literary debut was in 1975, when ''Lavoura Arcaica'' was released. The Brazilian cinema adapted both of his books (see the article Lavoura Arcaica (To the left of the father)). In 1997, ''Menina a Caminho'', a book of short stories written during the 1960s and 70s, was released. Despite great critical acclaim, Nassar retired from writing in 1984, claiming he had lost interest in literature and wanted to work with agriculture instead. As a landowner, Nassar dedicated himself to commercial farming until 2011, when he donated the entire farm to the Federal University of São Carlos, on the condition that it should become a new campus. He has also donated much of his real estate and invested in local charity, retiring then to a small farm. In 2016, Nassar was acclaimed the winner of the 2016

Camões Prize The Camões Prize (Portuguese, ''Prémio Camões'', ), named after Luís de Camões, is the most important prize for literature in the Portuguese language. It is awarded annually by the Portuguese ''Direção-Geral do Livro, dos Arquivos e das Bi ...

, the most prestigious award of the Portuguese language literature.

English translations

* * Reviewing ''A Cup of Rage'' in British daily newspaper ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'',

Nicholas Lezard Nicholas Andrew Selwyn LezardThe Cambridge University List of Members up to 31 December 1991, Cambridge University Press, p. 814 is an English journalist, author and literary critic. Background and education The Lezard family went from London to ...

found it to be "a burning coal of a work", adding, "You may consider a book this short to be scarcely worthy of the name, but it packs more power into its scant 47 pages than most books do into five or 10 times as many. Each of its seven chapters comes not only as an unbroken paragraph but as a single sentence: you have to read carefully to keep track, and once you have finished you will want to read it again. The writing is chewy – dense, tough, but well worth the effort".

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nassar, Raduan Living people 1935 births Brazilian male writers Brazilian people of Lebanese descent Camões Prize winners People from São Paulo (state) University of São Paulo alumni