Description

Life under Brazil’s brutal “cordial racism” comes painfully alive in this novel of fathers and sons.

How do you become the protagonist of your own life? For Pedro, it means searching for himself in the objects his father left behind: the layers that make up his life, and that of his parents, and the circumstances, geographies, and wounds that shaped them all. It’s an archaeology of affections, but also of life in southern Brazil, where being black on the streets of Porto Alegre manifests violences large and small. Where being a young woman, raised by a single mother, may find you seeking security in the untrustworthy arms of men.

In Dark Side of Skin , Jeferson Tenorio takes on fathers and sons, Shakespeare and Cervantes, and the inescapable bonds and burdens of family and history in one delicately rendered, painfully precise account of loved ones lost and found.

Publisher Review

"Through a deep dive into its characters, The Dark Side of Skin succeeds in addressing the central issues of Brazilian society. "" -Geovani Martins , author of THE SUN ON MY HEAD "Here we have a writer who, running every risk, knows how to engineer a good plot and to charm readers. I'm grateful, and Brazilian literature is grateful too. "" -Paulo Scott , author of PHENOTYPES "A necessary, hard-hitting work that humanises us at the same time as it strips us of any innocence about the racist machine that relentlessly destroys lives in every way imaginable." -Jornal de Letras "Tenorio's The Dark Side of Skin is the beat of the Afro-Brazilian atabaque drum that leads readers to withdraw into an initiatory trance in order to understand that they are capable of thinking, reflecting and acting in search of the freedoms the black population still lack today." -Literafro "The book analyses with great depth, beauty and delicacy a theme that is much more complex than it may seem, reminding us that, despite the urgent need to change a society where so much remains wrong, it is not enough to heal the superficial wounds. It is also necessary to heal those that are inside, hidden under the skin." -Observador