Vista Chinesa

a novel

by Tatiana Salem Levy (trans. Alison Entrekin)

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Pub Date 12 Jan 2023 | Archive Date 7 Dec 2022

Scribe UK

General Fiction (Adult) | Literary Fiction | True Crime

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Description

From one of Brazil’s rising literary stars, an acclaimed novella about the violation of a woman and a city, based on true events.

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

Júlia is a partner with an architectural firm working on the future Olympic village. During a break from a meeting at the town hall, she goes for a run in the hillside neighbourhood of Alto da Boa Vista. There, a man 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 family members are waiting for her.

Vista Chinesa brings light and shadow to a city whose stunning beauty cannot conceal the most serious human and political problems, and gives voice to a story that is tragically not uncommon.

From one of Brazil’s rising literary stars, an acclaimed novella about the violation of a woman and a city, based on true events.

It is 2014. There is euphoria in Brazil, especially in Rio de Janeiro...

Advance Praise

‘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

‘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