About this Event
About the book:
Ever since the unnamed threat took over, 100-year-old Natália has been stuck inside her Rio de Janeiro apartment, alone. Well, not entirely alone--her loved ones may be gone but they never really left her, plus she's pretty sure there's a spy watching her every move through the window.
As she waits for the daily call from her daughter who lives halfway across the world, the old woman revisits scenes from her life. There's her husband Vicente who obsessively erased maps of Brazil; her best friend Sarah, the cookie seller; Jorge who gave tarot readings for both humans and birds; and the comrades who joined her in resisting Brazil's dictatorship, at least until they were forced into hiding. Exemplary Humans is an ambitious novel about the quirks of memory and the delights and horror of aging.
About the author:
Juliana Leite is a Brazilian writer based in São Paulo. Her work has been published in Italy, France, Portugal, in the UK and US, appearing in The Paris Review, the French newspaper Libération and many Brazilian magazines. She’s been awarded the O. Henry Prize for the story “My good friend”, the first Brazilian writer to ever achieve the distinction; the story was optioned for film. Her previous works have been shortlisted for and awarded many prizes in Brazil including the Critics’ Choice for best novel with her debut book, also optioned for film. Juliana has been a fellow writer at Art Omi, Ucross Foundation, and Hawthornden Foundation.
Zoë Perry has translated the work of several contemporary Brazilian authors, including Juliana Leite, Veronica Stigger, Clara Drummond, Carol Bensimon and Ana Paula Maia. Her translations have appeared in the New Yorker, Granta, The New York Times, and The Paris Review. Born and raised in southeastern Kentucky, she is currently based in Miami.
The event will be moderated by Alex Brostoff.
Alex Brostoff is a scholar, writer, and translator. They are co-editor of the collection (The MIT Press, 2025) and have guest edited special journals issues on autotheory (2021) and trans literatures (2025). They’ve translated a range of critical theory and literary nonfiction from Spanish and Portuguese, including Indigenous leader Ailton Krenak's (Polity, 2024) and Brazilian activist Antônio Bispo dos Santos’s (Polity, 2026). Brostoff's first book, a decolonial reframing of autotheory, is under contract with Columbia University Press. They are Assistant Professor of English and Women’s and Gender Studies at Georgetown University.
Accessibility note: This event is up two flights of stairs and Lost City Books does not have an elevator. Please contact [email protected] with questions.
Dato de accesibilidad: Este evento toma lugar en el segundo piso y Lost City Books no tiene ascensor. Favor de contactar [email protected] con cualquiera duda.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Lost City Books, 2467 18th Street Northwest, Washington, United States
USD 0.00
