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The first book originally published on the Internet to be released by a major publisher.
With two novels published, Rio de Janeiro native Ana Paula Maia established herself as one of the most celebrated authors of new Brazilian literature and caught the attention of critics and opinion makers when she published a serialized novella online in 2006, a pioneering initiative. For months, readers followed the 12 chapters of *Between Dogfights and Slaughtered Pigs * online, which was released from digital to print with a new ending.
With plenty of blood, violence, and fine literature, Ana Paula Maia casts her gaze on the other, with profound traces of boldness and peculiarity, to examine the daily lives of men struggling to survive amid poverty and the lack of hope for a better life. In silence, these beast-men carry their burdens and those of others. This volume brings together two novellas.
The first, which gives the book its name, is written in five chapters and is set in a distant suburb, in suffocating heat, where betting on killer dogfights is the healthiest pastime for two brutes who make a living slaughtering pigs and distributing them to meatpacking plants. Edgar Wilson and Gerson expect the bare minimum from life, work hard, diligently fulfill their duties, and nurture an exceptional friendship. The rest matters little. The second narrative, "O Trabalho Sujo do Outros" (The Dirty Work of Others), in seven chapters, tells the story of three men who collect garbage, break up asphalt, and unclog sewers. When the garbage collectors decide to go on a general strike, the city begins to crumble, and Erasmo Wagner begins a strange, mystical journey, with a goat as the guide to a reckoning with his past. "O Trabalho Sujo do Outros" (The Dirty Work of Others) had four chapters published online under a different title.
Between dog fights and slaughtered pigs was already presented by the author as a "pulp serial".
"The serial brings a grip, a special rapture, and it's pulp in the sense that Tarantino or Takeshi Kitano's cinema is pulp. The volume of blood circulating is of a similar level," defines literary critic Beatriz Rezende, who wrote the book's blurb.
Its depiction and challenge of reality make the work one of the most original and significant in the current literary scene. The two novellas are part of a series called The Common Man Trilogy. The third novella is still unpublished.
"There are scenes that literature does not tolerate, but you need to understand a lot about fiction, reality and the representation of reality to be able to write them." - O Globo
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