)This is a well written book, with clever and inventive use of language. The author seems to have cornered the market on the description of dirt, filth and disease. In contrast to this is the constant reminder of cleanliness of a main character, to the point of obsession. There are some clever metaphors throughout the…
The population of Paraty swells from 35,000 to 100,00 today, as book enthusiasts overwhelm the town. The opening ceremony starts at 7pm Brazil time, which is 4 hours behind the UK and Portugal. The programme went on the Flip website a few days ago and paper copies were available yesterday. The Portuguese are notorious…
On day two, I covered some new Brazilian writers, who use death as their underlying theme, some interviews, in particular Liz Calder, President of the Paraty Festival, James Shapiro, Shakespearean scholar and the author Jonathan Franzen. Granta magazine in Brazil also announced the winners of their new writer’s competition. The day finished with a large…
Chris Keil is coming to Tavira in December! He has kindly agreed to do a reading at Lura dos Livros on Monday 3rd December. He is also going to run a writing workshop on Tuesday 4th December 10am -1pm The workshop will cover, how he writes, how to write narrative, dialogue and much much more, also lots of tips and ideas!! After the workshop…
As I write this, it is raining in Paraty. It is still beautiful, but its cold. The weather also occupied the mind of one of the writers I saw on day 5. Hanif Kureishi, (English mother, Pakistani father), grew up in Britain in the 1970’s. He said he “started writing to stop going mad”. He…
The day started with a press conference with Ian McEwan. He was his gentle mediative self and shared his love of Brazil. He first came to Brazil with his son in 2004 and his son said at the time Paraty had been the best 15 hours in Ian`s diary. His son, Gregory met a girl…
