Launching a Unique Book Based on the Experience of the Brazilian Embassy Book Club to Inspire Readers Everywhere

Launching a unique book based on the experience of the Brazilian Embassy book club to inspire readers everywhere.

Soon to begin the sixth year

‘Championing selected treasures of Brazilian literature from a twenty-first century stance and confuting tired clichés about Brazil’s place in world literature.’ Nadia Kerecuk

The Embassy of Brazil 13th December 2019 18 -20 pm

14-16 Cockspur Street London SW1Y 5BL How to Run a Bilingual Book Club Featuring the First Year of the BRAZILIAN BILINGUAL BOOK CLUB at the Embassy of Brazil in London by Nadia Kerecuk Creator and Convenor

This is a must-read for any book club convenors and lovers of literature. The Embassy of Brazil has been running a book club for the past five years for anyone in London wanting to read and discuss the best of the literature of Brazil, works largely unknown to the local public.

An illustrated handbook for anyone interested in running a bilingual book club, in treasures of Brazilian literature, in reading for pure pleasure and enhancing their cultural literacy. It features materials of the hugely successful and innovative Brazilian Bilingual Book Club at the Embassy of Brazil in London launched in January 2015, now in its fifth year.

The Brazilian Bilingual Book Club creator and convenor, Nadia Kerecuk, has now written a handbook listing the books discussed during its first year, providing background on the authors and questions to trigger debate. Copies of How to Run a Bilingual Book Club Featuring the First Year of the BRAZILIAN BILINGUAL BOOK CLUB at the Embassy of Brazil in London are being distributed to a number of Brazil’s missions overseas to facilitate their running of such clubs locally.

She shares her expertise in and passion for reading for pleasure by championing selected treasures of Brazilian literature from a twenty-first century stance, confuting tired clichés about Brazil’s place in world literature.

The introduction describes the structure of the book and contains (i) a brief history of the book club, (ii) what happens in the act of reading (theory and practice), (ii) why choose classics first and (iv) a commentary on translated books. The step-by-step guidance section sets out the four stages recommended to ensure best practice and success: (i) plan for action; (ii) define your continuity requirements; (iii) launch and implement and (iv) manage, evaluate performance and make adjustments. An illustrative selection of sample materials for launching a book club appears in the Appendix.

The second part contains tried and tested materials of Year One of the Book Club ready for use: including posts, pitch, publication details, a short history of the book and translation(s), a biography of the author, questions and an abridged newsletter. The distinguishing feature of the posts is that they are written as a history of ideas. Brazilian literary works are situated within the intellectual atmosphere of Brazil and the world. Additionally, the posts highlight underrated, or even overlooked, valuable intellectual links between Brazil and the United Kingdom. In her practice as a historian of ideas, Nadia Kerecuk uses primary sources as a principle. One of the benefits is that it helps to refute various uncorroborated claims. What emerges is a rich picture of continual cross-fertilisation of ideas between world literature and Brazilian literature, and vice-versa.

In addition, the section on history of the book writing and translation(s) in the posts evinces essential details which may have fallen into oblivion or which were not given due attention. As such, it contains a capsule book history.

Selected brief commentaries on the translation(s) of the book of the month aim at showing what effects choices in translations can have on the readability and enjoyment of the books. If the translations fail to render the sense of original and the nuances between its lines, thus, capturing the cultural context of the original text, the result is a nullifying impact on conveying the quality of the original. It is always a matter of regret as readers may lose interest in the author or even the literature of the country.

The twelve novels featured in the book are: Quincas Borba by Machado de Assis, A Paixão Segundo G.H., by Clarice Lispector, Gabriela Cravo e Canela by Joge Amado, Iracema: Lenda do Ceará by José de Alencar, Macunaíma, o Herói sem Nenhum Caráter by Mário de Andrade, Os Sertões: Campanha de Canudos by Euclides da Cunha, Triste Fim de Policarpo Quaresma by Lima Barreto, Canaã by Graça Aranha, Ópera dos Mortos by Autran Dourado, Dom Casmurro by Machado de Assis, O Cortiço by Aluísio Azevedo and A Carne by Júlio Ribeiro.

The materials in the handbook are to be used as an aid to reading for pleasure and fostering cultural literacy. The selection of questions for discussion aim at exploring facets of each book and to awaken curiosity regarding the numerous themes which carry universal appeal to readers of all ages in all places. The questions are not materials for testing understanding, neither are they any form of academic activity. If a literary work is of substantial quality, it will outlive its critics, mutating fashionable literary theories and translators. Nadia Kerecuk states that the proof of the pudding of a good read is that a good book can be read through generations and centuries; each reader will always discover something that touches their mind, soul or emotions. Re-reading such works ensues in further discoveries and renewed enchantment. In addition, the reader will unveil hitherto unknown universes of human imagination, invaluable in the age of the relentless advance of A.I. in every strand of human life.

The inclusion of the abridged newsletters aims at offering an insight into the numerous ways of reading each book, which resulted from the meetings of the book club. This will help convenors appraise reactions to the selected titles and to suggest what topics could be explored. Our book club members are representative of various age groups, backgrounds and professions of British, Brazilian and various other nationalities in London, one of the world’s preeminent intellectual, cultural and arts hub.

The printing of the book was funded the Foreign Ministry of Brazil. The Ministry highly praised the Brazilian Bilingual Book Club recommending it as best practice to other posts at the start of 2016. It is hoped that How to Run a Bilingual Book Club Featuring the First Year of the BRAZILIAN BILINGUAL BOOK CLUB at the Embassy of Brazil in London will be of help to other book club convenors either at diplomatic posts, or anywhere else. The publication has a foreword by the Ambassador of Brazil, H.E. Fred Arruda.

ISBN 978-1-5272-3265-5 Date of Publication: October 2019 Place of publication: London, UK Cover Price £ 0.00 free distribution, 244 pages |Trim size A5, 210mm x 148m|Illustrated in colour.

Genres: reading for pleasure theory and practice, how to run a bilingual book, fiction, literature, novels, history of ideas/intellectual history, Brazil, UK, linguistics and languages, Brazilian Portuguese, English, selected Brazilian classical novel materials, history of books, translated fiction, cultural diplomacy, 21st century soft diplomacy, cultural literacy.

Nadia Kerecuk A British-Brazilian linguist of Ukrainian descent and historian of ideas in language sciences. Nadia has dedicated the best of her energy to the fields of history of grammatical thought (main focus 15th-21st centuries, Slavonic, Portuguese and Brazilian, English and European), history of linguistic ideas, philosophy of and on language, psychology, theories of consciousness, computational linguistics, literature as part of language sciences, history of music theory and practice, history of educational theories, translation and interpretation theories and practice, bilingualism in the south of Brazil, intellectual/cultural history of Brazil, Ukraine, United Kingdom and Europe.

Employed by the Embassy of Brazil in London since March 2007. Since then, she has curated and moderated various literary events at the Embassy of Brazil including the 2007 Machado de Assis Week.

Educated in Brazil and the UK, she is an independent scholar, published translator, book reviewer, contributor to international encyclopaedias and international speaker, author and publisher. . Nadia Kerecuk was employed by UK Government Departments (FCO, MOD and other departments 1992- 2007). She is a member of various learned societies, executive committee member of The Henry Sweet Society for the History of Linguistic Ideas, member of the Society for the History of Humanities. Interviews e.g. BBC Radio Scotland on Machado de Assis and BBC Radio 4 on Robert Southey’s History of Brazil.

Contact details: [email protected] http://londres.itamaraty.gov.br/en-us/book_club.xml

Embassy of Brazil|14-16 Cockspur Street | London SW1Y 5BL