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Articles by Johnny Lorenz
The Wind is the Blowing: A Review of Crooked Plow
…the wind doesn’t blow, the wind is the blowing… ~ Itamar Vieira Junior In the Bahia province of Brazil, the rivers and trees pulsate with the same life that farmers feel and harness to live among them. But lurking in the shadows lies the leopard, and the struggle against the leopard reaps life and death. Two sisters know this violence firsthand. Grandma Donana’s ancient and beautiful knife captivates their curiosity before slicing off one sister’s tongue.
Why fiction from Latin America has become so popular with English-language readers
As a place on the map, Latin America lacks a precise and agreed definition. But what isn’t in doubt is that this collective region – which includes Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Chile and several other nations – covers a vast geographic area (over 7 million square miles) and a huge number of peoples, cultures, traditions and languages. Nor is it disputed that this is a region with an extraordinary literary heritage, both historically and currently.
Table of Contents - June 6, 2024
In the Heart of Bahia Itamar Vieira Junior’s first novel, Crooked Plow, tells a story of suffering, resistance, revenge, and redemption set in the impoverished, arid Brazilian Northeast. Crooked Plow by Itamar Vieira Junior, translated from the Portuguese by Johnny Lorenz Is Israel Committing Genocide? I have been engaged for six decades in the human rights movement, which has endeavored to restore peace by enforcing International Humanitarian Law.
Meet the International Booker Prize Reading Challenge Ambassadors
Recently, we launched the International Booker Prize 2024 Reading Challenge, a self-guided reading challenge that encourages readers around the world to explore the 2024 longlist, share their thoughts, and connect with fellow International Booker Prize fans. As part of the challenge, we also invited independent booksellers and librarians in the UK and Ireland to participate, all of whom play a vital role in encouraging their communities to read great fiction.
A Q&A with Itamar Vieira Junior and Johnny Lorenz, author and translator of Crooked Plow
With Crooked Plow longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2024, we spoke to its author and translator about their experience of working on the novel together – and their favourite books Read interviews with all of the longlisted authors and translators here. Publication date and time: Published April 2, 2024 How does it feel to be longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2024, and what would winning the prize mean to you?
Black Wing Dragging Across the Sand
“Not being devoured is the secret goal of an entire life.” —Clarice Lispector, The Smallest Woman in the World The next to be born was quite small, about the size of a sweet potato. The midwife said nothing to the mother at first but, upon leaving the room, warned her that the girl might not survive. No one seemed particularly concerned; after all, if she lived, it would be one more mouth to feed.
Black Wing Dragging Across the Sand
Photo by Cassiano Psomas / Unsplash “Not being devoured is the secret goal of an entire life.” — Clarice Lispector, The Smallest Woman in the World The next to be born was quite small, about the size of a sweet potato. The midwife said nothing to the mother at first but, upon leaving the room, warned her that the girl might not survive. No one seemed particularly concerned; after all, if she lived, it would be one more mouth to feed.
Crooked Plow: Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2024
Watch Antonia Thomas read an extract from Crooked Plow What the International Booker Prize 2024 judges said ‘Bibiana and Belonisía are two sisters whose inheritance arrives in the form of a grandmother’s mysterious knife, which they discover while playing, then unwrap from its rags and taste. The mouth of one sister is cut badly and the tongue of the other is severed, injuries that bind them together like scar tissue, though they bear the traces in different ways.
Read Your Way Through Salvador
The writer Itamar Vieira Junior says that to “feel the intensity of life on the streets of Salvador” in Bahia, Brazil, a reader must start with Jorge Amado. Read More
Read Your Way Through Salvador
Learn Your Method Across the World is a sequence exploring the globe by means of books. I used to be born in Salvador, within the Brazilian state of Bahia, and lived within the basic neighborhood till I reached the age of 15. However it was after I left that I actually got here to know my metropolis. How was I in a position to uncover extra about my birthplace whereas touring removed from residence?
Read Your Way Through Salvador Original
Books|Read Your Way Through Salvador https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/19/books/salvador-bahia-brazil-books.html The writer Itamar Vieira Junior says that to “feel the intensity of life on the streets of Salvador” in Bahia, Brazil, a reader must start with Jorge Amado. Credit...Raphaelle Macaron By Itamar Vieira Junior and translated by Johnny Lorenz July 19, 2023, 5:00 a.m. ET Read Your Way Around the World is a series exploring the globe through books.
Read Your Way Through Salvador
18 minutes ago 3 The writer Itamar Vieira Junior says that to “feel the intensity of life on the streets of Salvador” in Bahia, Brazil, a reader must start with Jorge Amado. Credit...Raphaelle Macaron By Itamar Vieira Junior and translated by Johnny Lorenz July 19, 2023, 5:00 a.m. ET Read Your Way Around the World is a series exploring the globe through books. I was born in Salvador, in the Brazilian state of Bahia, and lived in the general vicinity until I reached the age of 15.
CROOKED PLOW | Kirkus Reviews
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over. Awards & Accolades Likes 97 Our Verdict GET IT New York Times Bestseller The sequel to It Ends With Us (2016) shows the aftermath of domestic violence through the eyes of a single mother. Lily Bloom is still running a flower shop; her abusive ex-husband, Ryle Kincaid, is still a surgeon. But now they’re co-parenting a daughter, Emerson, who's almost a year old.
Crooked Plow
The following is from Itamar Vieira Junior's Crooked Plow. Junior was born in Salvador, Bahia, in 1979. He holds a doctorate in Ethnic and African Studies. Before Crooked Plow, he published a collection of short stories entitled The Executioner's Prayer, which was nominated for Brazil's biggest literary award, the Jabuti. Crooked Plow won the prestigious 2018 LeYa Award in Portugal. I was running through papyrus and cabelos-de-nego and sword-grass near the marshes, opening deep gashes in my dry skin.
2 Poems from Woman Submersed by Mar Becker, Translated from Portuguese by Johnny Lorenz
two women from so much water on the floor, the trail from bathroom to bedroom that’s how a woman knows another woman – knows if she’s washed her hair from the loose thread of the elastic band, she can tell this is the pair of underwear the other wears most from the seeds of passion fruit clinging to her back, down the curve between her buttocks she knows the other’s fond of those natural soaps touching the other’s breast, she’ll notice the imprint of a brassiere or if she prefers not wearing...
Her Big Horse Face
Clarice Lispector was born in 1920 to Jewish parents, in the small town of Chechelnik in Ukraine. It was hoped that the pregnancy would cure her mother’s syphilis, contracted when she was raped by a gang of Russian soldiers. The attempted cure failed. In 1921, the family made their way to Romania and eventually to Brazil. There, her father pushed a cart through the poorest parts of Recife, buying and selling used clothing. Her mother, by now partially paralysed, sat in a rocking chair on the porch.
The Indirect World
From The Besieged City, a novel that will be published this month by New Directions. Lispector’s novel The Chandelier was published last year by New Directions. Edited by Benjamin Moser and translated from the Portuguese by Johnny Lorenz. On one of his final business trips, instead of leaving his wife on Market Street, Mateus rented the little house on the island for her, hoping the sea would give her some color.
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