My Sweet Orange Tree (Paperback)

Jose Mauro de Vasconcelos

ISBN 10: 1805332112 / ISBN 13: 9781805332114

Published by Pushkin Press, London, 2025

About this Item

Paperback. Meet Zeze - Brazil's naughtiest and most loveable boy, his talent for mischief matched only by his great kindness. When he grows up, Zeze wants to be a 'poet with a bow-tie' but for now he entertains himself playing pranks on the residents of his family's poor Rio de Janeiro neighbourhood and inventing friends to play with. That is, until he meets a real friend, and his life begins to change.My Sweet Orange Tree is a worldwide classic of children's literature - never out of print in Brazil since it was first published in 1968, it has also been translated into an astonishing number of languages and won the hearts of millions of young readers from Korea to Turkey, Poland to Thailand and in many other countries too. Over fifty years after its first publication, the multimillion-copy international bestseller is available in Pushkin Children's Classics edition, sharing the heartbreaking tale of a gifted, mischievous, direly misunderstood boy growing up in Rio de Janeiro. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9781805332114

Bibliographic Details

• Title: My Sweet Orange Tree (Paperback)
• Publisher: Pushkin Press, London
• Publication Date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1805332112
• ISBN 13: 9781805332114
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

A WORLDWIDE CLASSIC OF CHILDREN'S LITERATURE: a moving, life-affirming story of a mischevious boy from Brazil and the power of kindness and imagination.

Meet Zezé - Brazil's naughtiest and most loveable boy, his talent for mischief matched only by his great kindness.

When he grows up he wants to be a poet with a bow-tie, but for now, he entertains himself playing pranks on the residents of his family's poor Rio de Janeiro neighborhood and inventing friends to play with. Zezé’s pranks can be a little too mischievous – at least, so say his parents, who punish him harshly when he misbehaves. His father is out of work and the family unhappiness falls hardest on Zezé, the second-youngest of seven siblings. That is, until he meets a real friend, and his life begins to change. With the help of Pinkie, the talking orange tree, Manuel, who gives Zezé rides in his car, and with his own endless supply of resourcefulness and imagination, Zezé will triumph over any adversity.

This worldwide classic of children's literature has never been out of print in Brazil since it was first published in 1968. Translated into an astonishing number of languages, it has won the hearts of millions of young readers from Korea to Turkey, Poland to Thailand, and many other countries too, with its inimitable blend of the heart-rending and the whimsical.

About the Author

José Mauro de Vasconcelos (1920-84) was a Brazilian writer, born to an indigenous mother and a Portuguese father, who worked as a sparring partner for boxers, as a labourer on a banana farm, and a fisherman before he started writing at the age of 22. He is most famous for his autobiographical novel My Sweet Orange Tree, which tells the story of his own childhood in Rio de Janeiro.

Alison Entrekin is an acclaimed translator from Portuguese, whose translations include Budapest by Chico Buarque, which was shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize.