Brazil is unique in that it is the only country in South America that doesn’t speak Spanish. Colonized by the Portuguese, Brazil’s official language is still that of their former colonizers, however Brazil has blazed its own path throughout history, separate from their European influence.  

Today, Brazil is synonymous with sport, including Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, a spinoff of the traditional Japanese martial art, MMA, and of course, soccer.

Yet despite the country’s love of athletics, many world renowned works of literature have been produced by Brazil’s citizens. 

In the early 19th century, Romanticism began to emerge in Brazil, mostly in the form of poetry, and novelists like Joquaim Manuel De Macedo and Jose de Alencar.

Toward the middle of the 19th century, Romanticism lost favor to the more modern realism, and later Brazil’s modernism in the early 20th century.

Today, Brazil’s literature is primarily focused on city life, as Brazil is home to many large cities. The themes often include violence, the degradation of nature, the influence of technology, as Brazil is unfortunately home to some of the most violent cities in the world. 

Where some countries are challenging in the “read the world” project because it’s nearly impossible to find English translations of works from these small or obscure countries, Brazil poses the opposite effect. The list of well respected authors and writers from Brazil is extensively long, making picking a single choice for each category daunting. 

While Brazil may not be mentioned in conversations about countries producing world class literature like France, Russia, or America, they certainly have enough talent to contend with any of those countries.