''Meu Pé de Laranja Lima'' () is a novel by José Mauro de Vasconcelos. The book was first published in 1968 and was used for literature classes for elementary schools in

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

. It has also been translated and published in the US, Europe and Asia. The novel is part of a

tetralogy A tetralogy (from Greek τετρα- ''tetra-'', "four" and -λογία ''-logia'', "discourse") is a compound work that is made up of four distinct works. The name comes from the Attic theater, in which a tetralogy was a group of three tragedies ...

written by Vasconcelos and centered on different stages in the life of the protagonist, Zeze, and, by extension, Vasconcelos. The four books were published in a disorganized order, following an

aleatory Aleatoricism (or aleatorism) is a term for musical compositions and other forms of art resulting from "actions made by chance". The term was first used "in the context of electro-acoustics and information theory" to describe "a course of sound ...

chronology instead of a direct one. The direct continuation of the story, ''Doidão'', was actually published in 1963, five years before ''My Sweet Orange Tree'', and follows the life of Zeze during his adolescence..

Plot

Zeze is a young boy who lives in Bangu, Rio de Janeiro with his underprivileged family. Because everyone is busy trying to support the family, Zeze is usually left by himself with his baby brother Luis, and ends up doing mischievous deeds that make his parents and older siblings so angry that they physically discipline him for what he has done. After Zeze's father gets fired, the whole family moves, and the new house has a few trees that each of the siblings claims. After having all the trees taken, Zeze gets upset, but one of his older sisters, Gloria, suggests looking in the backyard and Zeze soon discovers a small orange tree. At first, Zeze doesn't like his tree, but he finds out that amazingly, he can communicate with it. He gives the tree a name, Pinkie, and the two become best friends. Even after meeting a companion, Zeze continues his naughty pranks, and he finally decides to hang on the back of the car of a Portuguese man called Manuel Valadares. Unfortunately Zeze gets busted and Valadares humiliates him in public, causing Zeze to vow to take his revenge. However, Valadares attributes Zeze's attitude to the fact that he's a child and offers Zeze his friendship. With this relationship, Zeze learns what real love is. The two of them share many memories as good friends, but sadly, Valadares dies in a train accident. Zeze goes through serious mental trauma that causes illness. In the end, Zeze overcomes the trauma, but loses the ability to talk to Pinkie. Zeze also hears the news from his father that he has got a new job and their life will be better. However, Zeze confesses he feels he has killed his father in his mind for the treatment he has given him and expresses sorrow at losing his ‘real’ father, Manuel Valadares.

Adaptations

This book was first adapted into a film in

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 1970 Tonghai earthquake, Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli ...

, directed by Aurélio Teixeira. Three telenovelas based on the work were created: in

, shown by

TV Tupi Rede Tupi (; in English, Tupi Network) was a Brazilian commercial terrestrial television network. Its flagship station, located in the city of São Paulo, was the first TV station to operate in the country, being inaugurated on 18 September 1 ...

; in

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a United States grain embargo against the Soviet Union, grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning Sys ...

and

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

, shown by

Rede Bandeirantes Rede Bandeirantes (, ''Bandeirantes Network''), or simply known as Band (), is a Brazilian free-to-air television network. It began broadcasting on May 13, 1967 on VHF channel 13 in São Paulo. Its founder was businessman :pt:João Saad, Jo ...

. In 2003, the work was published in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

, in comic book form, in an edition with 224 illustrated pages. In

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

, a new film version, directed by Marcos Bernstein, was produced and shown during the Rio Festival, which began on April 19, 2013.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Meu Pe de Laranja Lima 1968 Brazilian novels Brazilian novels adapted into films Novels about trees Novels about talking trees