by Jose Henrique Bortoluci (Author), Rahul Bery (Translator)
A genre-bending and thought-provoking examination of capitalism and cancer - and recent Brazilian history - based on the author's interviews with his truck driver father.
In What Is Mine, sociologist Jos? Henrique Bortoluci uses interviews with his father, Didi, to retrace the recent history of Brazil and of his family. From the mid-1960s to the mid-2010s, Didi's work as a truck driver took him away from home for long stretches at a time as he crisscrossed the country and participated in huge infrastructure projects including the Trans-Amazonian Highway, a scheme spearheaded by the military dictatorship of the time, undertaken through brutal deforestation.
An observer of history, Didi also recounts the toll his work has taken on his health, from a heart attack in middle age to the cancer that defines his retirement. Bortoluci weaves the history of a nation with that of a man, uncovering parallels between cancer and capitalism - both sustained by expansion, both embodiments of 'the gospel of growth at any cost' - and tracing the distance that class has placed between him and his father. Influenced by authors such as Annie Ernaux and Svetlana Alexievich, is a moving, thought-provoking and brilliantly constructed examination of the scars we carry, as people and as countries.
Author Biography
José Henrique Bortoluci was born in Jaú in 1984. He has a BA in International Relations and an MA in Social History from the University of São Paulo, as well as an MA and a PhD in Sociology from the University of Michigan, where he lectured and was a Fulbright fellow. He is a professor of Sociology at the Fundação Getúlio Vargas in São Paulo, where his lectures and research revolve around Brazilian politics, social theory, democracy and social movements.
Rahul Bery is based in Cardiff, Wales and translates from Spanish and Portuguese to English. His most recent translation is Nothing Can Hurt You Now by Simone Campos (Pushkin Vertigo) and he is currently working on books by Vicente Luís Mora and José Henrique Bortoluci.