Rain

Dalton Trevisan, author of unforgettable short stories and winner of the main literary awards in the Portuguese language – such as the Camões Prize and the Machado de Assis Prize from the Brazilian Academy of Letters (ABL) –, and award-winning artist Eloar Guazzelli come together in this book to capture the essence of rainy days.

In 1951, the Gazeta do Povo newspaper published the first version of "Chuva," a short story by award-winning author Dalton Trevisan. Now, many years later, the story has been republished in a new book illustrated by Eloar Guazzelli, a renowned Brazilian illustrator, comic book artist, and art director.

"Rain" is poetic prose that portrays the natural phenomenon as, at once, a setting, a main character, and a supporting character. And as a social phenomenon. In everyone's lives—those indoors or outdoors, downtown or on the outskirts—it is present. Rain prevails over rich and poor, humans and animals, living and dead, making no distinction between place, person, or social class. Everything is transformed with its arrival. And, drop by drop, throughout the story told in this work, a panorama of life in metropolises emerges, marked by the urban problems it causes in everyday life, as well as by the different realities of life we know all too well. "The story is structured around this dramatic back-and-forth between those besieged outside and those waging a fierce struggle to enter the house," writes Augusto Massi, professor of Brazilian Literature at the University of São Paulo (USP), in his text on the work, which provides keys to its reading and guidelines for classroom use. Little by little, Dalton reveals to us a social expression of rain. Through a series of questions, he hints at how rain affects the lives of those who work: 'What happened to the Turks selling apples on the street?'; 'Guards open their arms on the street corner and whistle: 'Why is it raining, Sir?'; 'And the ice cream vendor, what does he do with his ice cream?'"

The illustrations by award-winning artist Eloar Guazzelli brilliantly complement what Dalton Trevisan wrote in the early 1950s, reflecting aspects of our reality to this day. After all, since the beginning of time, and there's no way to change this fact, rain has been beating down on everyone's head, roof, and chimney. Although Dalton, throughout his career as a short story writer, never intended to write for children, in *Chuva* we see the intensity of his prose balanced with the sensitivity of Guazzelli's illustrations, making this small masterpiece accessible to readers of all ages.