Vista Chinesa

a novel
Tatiana Salem Levy (trans. Alison Entrekin)

‘And that is what Vista Chinesa does: surviving a rape is not a shame, but a victory.’

Antonia Pellegrino, award-winning writer and screenwriter

‘The author’s focus on a corrupted body is interesting … A body that in the eyes of the world is just another body, but which the person who inhabits it feels as the standard of the greatest shame. The victim is once again held responsible for the actions of the abuser, a harrowing experience that Salem Levy portrays to perfection.’

Paula Bonet, El País

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‘That is the great thing and it is what literature can do — to put into words what is unbearable … Vista Chinesa is a slim book, a stunning piece of literature, and also an image of society. Intimacy becomes public and the personal becomes political.’

Deutschlandfunk

‘A book full of beauty, depth, and space for reflection. The author does not exploit her story, but in a sense unfolds it to analyse it, and the way she does this, with prudence, economy, and veracity, makes this slim book unusual.’

FAZ

‘Of impressive literary brilliance.’

Expresso

‘A must-read.’

Elle Brazil

Praise for The House in Smyrna:

‘Wonderful … deceptively simple prose carrying a great power of sorrow and, interestingly, hope.’

Ian McEwan

Praise for The House in Smyrna:

‘Levy’s writing is a joy … Her prose is rich, filled with a sense of the vividness and generosity of an author’s available inspirations: the clamour of the senses, the restless truths of the body, the turns and consolations and perils of thought, the wonders of both beauty and ugliness and the meaning and architecture of words themselves.’

A.L. Kennedy, Granta

Praise for The House in Smyrna:

‘Teasing … Levy has crafted a puzzling, disturbing story that at times leaves the reader feeling blindfolded in a maze.’

Suzi Feay, Financial Times

‘An impressive power, which takes us by storm in the first pages … as if the book were the forest itself, to accompany with extreme distress, with half-closed eyes, the maximum harshness.’

Julián Fuks, Brazilian writer and literary critic

Inspired by a real event, this is the story of a woman and a city that were violated.

It is 2014. There is euphoria in Brazil, especially in the city of Rio de Janeiro. The World Cup is about to take place, and the 2016 Olympics are in sight. It is a time of hope and of frenzied construction.

Júlia is a partner with an architecture firm that is planning projects for the future Vila Olímpica. During a break from one of these meetings at the town hall, Júlia goes for a run in Alto da Boa Vista. Suddenly, someone puts a revolver to her head, takes her to a secluded spot, and rapes her. Left abandoned in the woods, she drags herself home, where her boyfriend and some family members wait for her.

Vista Chinesa brings light and shadow to a city whose stunning beauty cannot conceal the most serious human and political problems. This is a novel that turns a tragic, real chapter in the story of a woman into great literature.

‘And that is what Vista Chinesa does: surviving a rape is not a shame, but a victory.’

Antonia Pellegrino, award-winning writer and screenwriter

Paula Bonet, El País

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Deutschlandfunk

FAZ

‘Of impressive literary brilliance.’

Expresso

‘A must-read.’

Elle Brazil

Praise for The House in Smyrna:

‘Wonderful … deceptively simple prose carrying a great power of sorrow and, interestingly, hope.’

Ian McEwan

Praise for The House in Smyrna:

A.L. Kennedy, Granta

Praise for The House in Smyrna:

‘Teasing … Levy has crafted a puzzling, disturbing story that at times leaves the reader feeling blindfolded in a maze.’

Suzi Feay, Financial Times

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Details

Format:Paperback

Size: 210mm × 135mm

Extent:144pp

ISBN (13):9781922585288

RRP:$24.99

Pub date:2 Aug 2022

Rights Held: UK & Commonwealth

High-res cover:Download Image

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AUTHOR

Tatiana Salem Levy

Tatiana Salem Levy is a writer, essayist, and researcher at Universidade Nova de Lisboa. Her first novel, The House in Smyrna (also published by Scribe and translated by Alison Entrekin), won Brazil’s biggest literary award — the São Paulo Prize for Literature — for a debut work. She lives in Lisbon, and is a columnist for the newspaper Valor Econômico.

TRANSLATOR

Alison Entrekin

Australian translator Alison Entrekin has translated over forty books from the Portuguese, including the classics City of God by Paulo Lins, Near to the Wild Heart by Clarice Lispector, and My Sweet Orange Tree by José Mauro de Vasconcelos. In 2019, she was awarded the New South Wales Premier’s Translation Prize and PEN medallion for the body of her work. Other honours include shortlistings for the 2004 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, the 2012 IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and the 2013 PEN America Translation Prize. She teaches literary translation privately, and occasionally writes about translation (in Portuguese) at: https://www.revistapessoa.com.