It was with A DOG HOWLING AT THE MOON that Antônio Torres made his literary debut in 1972, being immediately acclaimed as "an explosive talent" (Leo Gilson Ribeiro, Veja magazine), "a master fiction writer" according to Jorge Amado, and "the most significant debut" of that year (Hélio Pólvora, Jornal do Brasil). A DOG HOWLING AT THE MOON did more than surprise literary circles: it was also a success with the public. Critics received it with a rare enthusiasm for a debutant, highlighting the courage of his testimony and the strength of his language, whose "healthy aggressiveness" appropriately served the plot's blunt message. Published by a small publisher called Gernasa, A DOG HOWLING AT THE MOON would make a huge impact. It was hailed by the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo as "the revelation of the year." To commemorate this "happy debut," in the words of Aguinaldo Silva in the now-defunct Opinião, let's see what O Globo said about this book on November 26, 1972: "No one knew who Antônio Torres was, even though he is one of the greatest revelations of a writer to emerge from Brazil recently. This debut novel has surprising power and in certain passages reaches the heights of the best national fiction. The realistic, dry, and colloquial language and the richness of situations lead us to expect even more important works from this author." And this was confirmed. Today, with more than a dozen published titles, Antônio Torres is among the most respected and widely read Brazilian writers, with many awards, successive editions, translations in several countries, and a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres honor from the French government. But it all really began with A DOG HOWLING AT THE MOON, thirty years ago, "the happy debut," "the howl of a generation," which Record is now re-releasing in a commemorative edition. Antônio Torres was born on September 13, 1940, in Junco, a village in the interior of Bahia. He studied in Alagoinhas and Salvador, where he joined the Jornal da Bahia newspaper. At 20, he moved to São Paulo, where he worked as a reporter and editor-in-chief of the sports section of the newspaper Última Hora. He switched from journalism to advertising, working as a copywriter for major Brazilian agencies. He made his literary debut in 1972 with the novel "A Dog Howling at the Moon." In 1976, he published "This Land," his greatest success, which has been translated into French, Spanish, Italian, German, Hebrew, and Dutch. He is also the author of "Ballad of Lost Childhood," "The Round-Footed Men," "Letter to the Bishop," "Goodbye, Old Man," "The Center of Our Inattention," "The Dog and the Wolf," "The Circus in Brazil," "Boys, I Tell," and "My Dear Cannibal." In 1998, he was awarded the title of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French government. In 1987, he received the Novel of the Year award from the Pen Club of Brazil for "Balada da infância perdido" (Ballad of Lost Childhood), and in 1997, the hors concours award for Novel from the Brazilian Writers' Union for "O cachorro e o lobo" (The Dog and the Wolf). "Meu querido canibal" (My Dear Cannibal) earned him the Zaffari & Bourbon Award from the Passo Fundo Literary Conference in 2001. "Antônio Torres, far from forgetting his origins and his land, returns to them through fiction, inserting them into literary geography." - Jornal da Tarde "Torres's work is a challenge; it offers a wonderful opportunity to learn about people and cultures that understand us more than we understand them." - Los Angeles Times Book Review "There is no trace of sentimentality in Torres's work. On the contrary, every emotion is shaped with good humor and a dose of elegant irony." - Isto É Magazine "The book is excellent. I enjoyed it very much. Antônio Torres is a master fiction writer, and I'm sure he will go far." - Jorge Amado "A Dog Howling at the Moon is one of those rare books you can't put down until the end. Violent, engaging, and always terribly sincere." - Caio Fernando Abreu "It's a very successful experiment, fusing ultra-sophisticated urban literature with a regionalism entirely stripped of the genre's traditional quirks: a great book." - Marcos Santarrita
