Phenotypes by Paulo Scott (And Other Stories)
Paulo Scott’s Phenotypes, translated from Portuguese by Daniel Hahn, is a compelling account of how race and racism shape hearts, minds, and institutions in contemporary Brazil, explored through the lives of two brothers born with very different skin tones. We’re delighted to announce that the translator, Daniel Hahn will be joining us for a Q&A session to discuss the book and his experience of translating it.
About the book
Federico and Lourenço are brothers. Their father is black, a famed forensic pathologist for the police; their mother is white. Federico – distant, angry, analytical – has light skin, which means he’s always been able to avoid the worst of the racism that Brazilian culture has to offer. He can ‘pass’ as white, and yet, because of this, he has devoted his life to racial justice. Lourenço, on the other hand, is dark-skinned, easy-going, and well-liked in the brothers’ hometown of Porto Alegre – and has become a father himself.
As Federico’s fiftieth birthday looms, he joins a governmental committee in the capital. It is tasked with quelling the increasingly violent student protests rocking Brazil by overseeing the design of a software program that will adjudicate the degree to which each university applicant is sufficiently black to warrant admittance under new affirmative-action quotas. Before he can come to grips with his feelings about this initiative, not to mention a budding romance with one of his committee colleagues, Federico is called home: his niece has just been arrested at a protest carrying a concealed gun. And not just any gun. A stolen police service revolver that Federico and Lourenço hid for a friend decades before. A gun used in a killing.
Paulo Scott here probes the old wounds of race in Brazil, and in particular the loss of a black identity independent from the history of slavery. Exploratory rather than didactic, a story of crime, street-life and regret as much as a satirical novel of ideas, Phenotypes is a seething masterpiece of rage and reconciliation.
Source: And Other Stories (www.andotherstories.org/phenotypes)
Sign up for your (free) ticket through Eventbrite at the following link:
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/international-book-club-tickets-355186110217
Date:
13 July 2022, 20:00 (Wednesday, 12th week, Trinity 2022)
Venue:
Online via Zoom
Speaker:
Daniel Hahn (Translator)
Organising department:
The Queen's College
Part of:
Translation Exchange: International Book Club
Booking required?:
Required
Booking url:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/international-book-club-tickets-355186110217
Cost:
Free
Audience:
Public
Editors:
Laura Spence,
Belinda Clark
