Ignacio de Loyola Brandão

Brandão in Frankfurt, 2013.

Ignacio de Loyola Brandão (born 1936) is a Brazilian born writer perhaps best known as the science fiction author of the dystopian novel Zero, the story of Brazil in the 1960s under a totalitarian regime.^[1] In his career he has won the Prêmio Jabuti.^[2]

Brandão was born in Araraquara but moved from his small city to São Paulo, the state capital, when he was twenty and worked at a newspaper, Ultima Hora (Last Hour).^[1] He "familiarized himself with [...] the geographical idiosyncrasies of the metropolis and the complex political issues of the day" over the next eight years until the 1964 coup d'etat that ushered in military rule.^[1] He was able to publish Bebel Que a Cidade Comeu (Bebel Eaten by the City) in 1968 but due to censorship, Zero, completed in 1969, was only first published in Europe in 1974 and censored from Brazil until the late 1970s.^[1][3] His experiences and knowledge were reflected in his novels, Nao verás país nenhum (1981), Zero, and And Still the Earth (1985).^[1] These novels also reflected the atmosphere of the time and according to Brandão responded to the conditions the dictatorship created.^[1] "[T]o make a literature that documents, that pictures, just like the camera filming the country in order to show it on the screen of the book; later this screen was obscured by censorship."^[1]

Awards and Recognitions

• 2011 São Paulo Prize for Literature — Chosen to serve as a member of the Final Jury^[4]

References

1. Eva Paulino Bueno ;Darrell B. Lockhart, editor, Latin American science fiction writers: an A-to-Z guide, pp.33-5, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004 ISBN 0-313-30553-6, ISBN 978-0-313-30553-5.
2. Folha
3. Robert M. Levine, John J. Crocitti, The Brazil reader: history, culture, politics, pp.251, Duke University Press, 1999, ISBN 0-8223-2290-0, ISBN 978-0-8223-2290-0.
4. G1: Pop & Arte (1 August 2011). "Prêmio São Paulo de Literatura divulga vencedores de 2011". globo.com. Retrieved 7 April 2013.

External links

• Zero, a short review at nthWORD Magazine Shorts