The Sun on My Head - Softcover

Martins, Geovani

3.86

2,231 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0571348246 ISBN 13: 9780571348244

Publisher: Faber & Faber, 2019

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LONGLISTED FOR THE EDINBURGH FESTIVAL FIRST BOOK AWARD

The Sun on My Head is a collection of thirteen stories set in Rio's largest favela, gravitating around the lives of young boys and men who, in spite of having to deal with the anguish and difficulties inherent to their age, also struggle with the violence involved in growing up on the less favoured side of the 'Broken City'.

They smoke weed, sell weed, and notice the smell of weed lingering on the clothes of passersby in the streets. A boy steals his security-guard father's gun to show it to his friends, another runs into trouble disposing of a body, and another relapses into an old graffiti habit, with tragic consequences . Drugs and poverty colour them, but these stories also depict the pain of growing up with attendant hopes and desires.

Geovani Martins has produced a spellbinding debut about masculinity, corruption, guilt, poverty and resilience. Completely of our time and yet profoundly timeless, it's a book that animates and humanises the people of a city whose humanity is often obscured by its own reputation.

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Review:

Every so often a writer blasts a hole through a wall. Geovani Martins is that writer. The Sun on My Head is a blaze of heat, love and risk that will leave you reeling. -- D B C Pierre, author of VERNON GOD LITTLE

Geovani Martins is an extraordinary writer... The Sun on My Head is one of the most important imaginings of the devastating inequality that plagues Brazilian society since City of God. -- Misha Glenny, author of McMAFIA

These stories are explosive. Razor sharp, funny, full of desperation and longing, Martins's voice catches you and doesn't let you go. He writes with dry-eyed clarity and unbeatable heart. -- Akil Kumarasamy, author of HALF GODS

Tense, colourful snapshots of the life in these bustling communities, with their heavily armed drug gangs, police oppression and relentless poverty . . . [Martins] riddles his phrases with favela slang, freestyling into hazy existential monologues when his characters succeed in scoring marijuana - a constant preoccupation in the city he describes., Observer

Geovani Martins's vibrant debut The Sun On My Head offers so much: a sense of urgency which is both collective and stylistic; a set of voices searching for another world and another kind of language; a personal, sensorial poetics that manages to produce epiphanies at the very heart of social conflicts. -- Andr�s Neuman, author of TRAVELLER OF THE CENTURY

'Martins shows us that the language of the favelas is just as legitimate as the language of the academy, keeping "literature" true to everyday form. Julia Sanches preserves this legitimacy in English, delivering a carefully crafted translation filled with colloquialisms, slang, and Portuguese. The result is "some real trifling shit"-a wild ride that exposes us to the complexities of life in the periphery and the complexities of translating that life from one language into another . . . This is a book that lives on the streets, among the people of Rio's favelas.', Asymptote

'A lively translation by Julia Sanches that stays true to the spirit of the writing, the novel is the first
Brazilian book in history to sell publishing rights to translations in nine countries in anticipation of
its release . . . There are many strengths to his storytelling, not least a way with colour and energy
that bring most settings and scenarios to life . . . The devaluing of human life by drug and gang
culture in the city is a recurring theme, with stories such as The Tale of Parakeet and Ape and
Padre Miguel Station skilfully showing the fallout . . . The collection really shines when it comes
to setting. Martins is an evocative writer who knows his city well . . . The sun is most certainly on
this young author's head.'

, Irish Times

'A debut of real promise by an author already in full command of his craft., New Internationalist

Martins' writing is blunt, often brutal, but not without a sense of playfulness, as he careens between visions of adolescent hijinks and hard-partying and the more sinister menace of drug lords and government militias. A tantalizing haze of fear and paranoia hangs over Martins' stories, as oppressive and mind warping as the Rio heat, Vanity Fair

What binds the tales here is the voice - with its street-smart bravado, bitter edge and an emotional intelligence that proves compelling. Martins handles masculinity and fragility with equal commitment. In the conflicting imagery of drugs, guns and butterflies, readers are made to appreciate the importance and weight that each object holds within the pages of this slim but substantial volume., Independent

Book Description:

The bestselling literary sensation from Brazil, The Sun on My Head is a work of great talent and heartbreaking sensitivity-a daring evocation of life in the favelas by a rising star firmly rooted in the community he portrays.

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