#completestories

As the largest country in South America and one of the world's most culturally varied, Brazil is a must-visit destination. For as long as its history has been complex and conflicting, Brazil's literature has been full of fun elements like magical realism and family drama and more traditional forms like poetry and music. 

To spark your interest in learning more about this beautiful country, we've compiled this list of the top Brazilian books you should read.

Complete Stories by Clarice Lispector

Complete Stories has been presented to a new audience of Lispector fans thanks to the recent publication of five novels by New Directions. It is one of the best Brazilian books that is now being published in English for the first time.

Stories about everything from teenagers finding out their sexual and artistic potential to everyday housewives whose lives are turned upside down by life-changing experiences. They take us through their lives and ours through the stories of Lispector.

They are a collection of stories from the author's nine published collections, spanning her whole career as a writer, spanning from the ages of youth to her deathbed.

Brazil: A Biography by Lilia Schwarcz and Heloisa Starling

This book provides an in-depth look at Brazil's fascinating past. While tracing the epic history of the nation, these authors also follow the shifting byways of food, art and popular culture; the struggle of minorities; and the ebb and flow of economic cycles. 

For more than two decades, historians and social scientists like Schwarcz and Starling have been digging deep into the archives of history and sociology. Their goal is to unearth a long-forgotten narrative about the unfinished business of integrating peoples of different races and how postcolonial political dysfunction has continued to plague the United States today.

A Death in Brazil: A Book of Omissions by Peter Robb

When slavery was abolished in the late nineteenth century, Brazil was left with a multi-ethnic, society that was both rich and unsettled.

Even now, the gap between the rich and the poor in Brazil is nearly inconceivable, and the country suffers from high rates of crime and violence. It is also one of the world's most attractive and alluring places. 

Robb transports us to a universe akin to Joseph Conrad's Nostromo with the help of art, food, and the works of Machado de Assis, a renowned writer from the country's 19th century. Lula's battle for the presidency is wildly dramatic that it could have come straight from one of the country's popular soap operas, a world where resolution is typically supplied by death.

My German Brother by Chico Buarque

As if Ciccio didn't have enough on his plate, his older brother seems hell-bent on destroying the hearts of all the lovely women in Sao Paulo, and his father is aloof and larger than life. To make matters worse, when Ciccio discovers a distressing letter addressed to his father from Berlin dated December 21, 1931, his existential dilemma intensifies more.

There are also rumours that his father has another child with a different woman, often referred to as a German son whose whereabouts are unknown. He sets off on a journey to find his long-lost half-brother and reclaim his father's trust in the process. 

Ciccio has been searching for his German brother as the military dictatorship of Brazil has been cracking down on opposition and spreading reports of arrests and missing person reports.