Hotel Brasil - Softcover

Betto, Frei

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1908524278 ISBN 13: 9781908524270

Publisher: Bitter Lemon Press, 2014

Synopsis

The setting for this witty and insightful debut crime novel is a Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, family hotel. Rio is the perfect backdrop with its history of military dictatorship, drug wars, child gangs, and violent policing tactics.

The decapitated body of a hotel resident is found. The eyes have been removed from the head, casually left on the floor of the room. The victim's eerie, frozen Mona Lisa smile seems to indicate that the murderer had been received as a friend.

According to the police, the victim was stabbed in the heart and died before the decapitation. As the investigation continues, with few leads or clues worth pursuing, other hotel clients are found dead; all decapitated, usually with the head found delicately balanced on their knees.

This classical crime novel provides an opportunity for Frei Betto (a Dominican friar, once a political prisoner, a union activist, and then an adviser to President Lula da Silva) to describe Brazilian society, especially those left at its edge, like Rio's favela children, abused, hunted-down, but also addicted to drugs and violent crime.

The book tells the fascinating back stories of the hotel residents, suspects, and eventual victims, such as the maid who dreams of making it in television soaps, and the female pimp who has survived incestuous rape, while being faithful to a suspenseful intrigue that could have been thought up by Ruth Rendell.

Brazil will receive much attention as host of the 2014 Football World Cup and the 2016 Olympics.

About this title

About the Author:

Frei Betto: Frei Betto, born 1944, is a Brazilian writer, political activist, liberation theologian and Dominican friar. He was imprisoned for four years in the 1970s by the military dictatorship for smuggling people out of Brazil. In addition to work on eliminating hunger in Brazil, Frei Betto is involved in Brazilian politics. He worked for the government of President Lula da Silva as an advisor on prison policy and child hunger. This is his first novel.

Jethro Soutar: Jethro Soutar, born in Sheffield, lives in London and has recently published two works of non-fiction, 'Ronaldinho: Football's Flamboyant Maestro' and a part biography, part chronicle of a film movement, entitled 'Gael García Bernal and the Latin American New Wave', published in July 2008. Soutar translated Needle in a Haystack by Ernesto Mallo for Bitter Lemon Press.

Review:

“A wonderful classic mystery novel written to the best standards of the genre. Between layers of the investigation of an unsolvable crime and a display of suspicious characters, Betto slips in a view of the real Brazil, raw and bleeding.” Le Monde Diplomatique

“A fascinating kaleidoscope of contemporary Brazil.” Le Monde

“A roman noir, but above all a bitter sweet novel, Hotel Brasil plunges the reader into the heart of a Rio that feeds on its people” Metro



A wonderful classic mystery novel written to the best standards of the genre. Between layers of the investigation of an unsolvable crime and a display of suspicious characters, Betto slips in a view of the real Brazil, raw and bleeding.” Le Monde Diplomatique

A fascinating kaleidoscope of contemporary Brazil.” Le Monde

A roman noir, but above all a bitter sweet novel, Hotel Brasil plunges the reader into the heart of a Rio that feeds on its people” Metro

About this edition

• Publisher: Bitter Lemon Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1908524278
• ISBN 13: 9781908524270
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288