Open city, closed city

In this book of chronicles, Ricardo Ramos Filho guides us through the city of São Paulo: first as a living, everyday experience; then as a place of confinement during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Open City, Closed City is an urban novel set in São Paulo, which takes us on a stroll through its streets and establishments, filled with encounters, missed encounters, and longing. We follow a university professor who observes the city dwellers around him, in settings such as the subway, the market, and the streets. People and animals are all subject matter for the narrator's observation, sensitive both to the small world that surrounds him and to issues of national politics.

São Paulo is not only the setting for the chronicles, but also a source of movements and scenes that unfold in many large cities. The narrator, with his discerning eye, comments on human relationships and the spirit of the times, in musical tastes, communication, and political stances. The places he passes through and the objects he encounters also trigger childhood memories and make him recall scenes from his own life and fond companions. When the city shuts down due to social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic, his gaze wanders from the window of an apartment.

The full and empty spaces of Open City, Closed City form an asymmetrical mirror of the period before and after the pandemic that ravaged the world in 2020 and the years that followed. Besides being extremely timely, Ricardo Ramos Filho's text reminds us of the timeless need to desire, hope, and actively seek better times.

Antônio Torres, who wrote the book's blurb, describes:

"There you have it, the largest of our metropolises, portrayed with affection and strangeness, lightness and restlessness by those who have lived there since childhood, and who today, between childhood memories and visions of the present and future, delight in the free ride on the underground trains. [...] In this play of light and shadow, the pleasure of Ricardo Ramos Filho's text speaks louder in its journeys between chronicle and short story, with the mouthpiece of a novelist, hail him!"