Brazilian singer-songwriter Chico Buarque to release his first book of short stories

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Chico Buarque will release in October this year “Os anos de chumbo e outros contos” (The Years of Lead and Other Stories), the first book of short stories by this singer-songwriter and writer who has already published six novels and achieved fame as one of the most emblematic voices of Brazilian popular music.

The author of “Construção”, one of the most representative songs of Latin American protest music and whose release 50 years ago was recently celebrated, has finished his first book of short stories and has already delivered it to the publishing house Companhia das Letras.

The information was disclosed this Thursday (26) by a columnist of the newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo and confirmed by Companhia das Letras, which clarified that it will not disclose more details for now but will soon publish the first review.

“The Years of Lead” is a reference in Brazil to the repression suffered by opponents of the military dictatorship that ruled the country between 1964 and 1985 and which forced Buarque, now 77, into exile and made him the target of censorship.

Francisco Buarque de Hollanda, one of Brazil’s most popular singer-songwriters, with more than 17 albums recorded and a musical career spanning more than five decades, has also stood out in the world of literature as a writer of novels, poetry, and plays, which earned him the Camões Prize in 2019, the main award for literature in the Portuguese language.

In his latest novel, “Essa Gente” (Those People), launched in November 2019 and with clear autobiographical references, he portrays the life of a fictional and decadent writer facing a serious creative, financial and emotional crisis in the midst of a Rio de Janeiro that is also collapsing.

The Brazilian musician, composer, and writer debuted as a novelist in 1974 with “Fazenda modelo” (Model Farm) and has won three times the Jabuti Prize, another of the most representative awards of Portuguese literature, for his works “Estorvo” (Encumbrance, 1991), “Budapeste” (Budapest, 2004) and “Leite derramado” (Spilled Milk, 2010).

“O Irmão Alemão” (The German Brother, 2014) was the fifth novel by Buarque, famous worldwide for composing songs such as “Construçao”, “A Banda”, “Cálice” and “Apesar de Você”, which made the Brazilian dictatorship tremble.

Before his foray into novels, Buarque published short stories, poetry, and even children’s musicals. His first published book was “Ulisses”, a short story released in 1966, but he had not released a collection of short stories until now.