Portuguese-language novel receives prestigious National Book Award for Translated Literature
NEW YORK - Stênio Gardel’s debut novel ‘A Palavra Que Resta’ has won the prestigious National Book Award for Translated Literature, an unprecedented feat in Portuguese-language literature.
A native of Ceará, Brazil, Gardel, 43, released the book in 2021. It was translated from the Portuguese by Bruna Dantas Lobato for New Vessel Press, under the title ‘The Words That Remain.’
The novel follows Raimundo, an illiterate man who in his youth had his secret love brutally interrupted and has kept a letter with him for 50 years that he was never able to read. It’s a book about scars left by poverty, illiteracy, and homophobia, opening in Brazil’s rural hinterland and moving to its metropolitan center.
Gardel and Lobato received their respective awards at the 74th National Book Awards ceremony at Cipriani Wall Street on Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2023, in New York.
“Growing up as a gay boy in the hinterlands of northeast Brazil, it was impossible for me to think to dream of such an honor. But being here tonight, as a gay man receiving this award for a novel of another gay man’s journey to self-acceptance, I want to say to everyone, whoever, felt wrong about themselves, that your heart and desire are true and you are just as deserving as anybody else of having a fulfilling life and accomplishing impossible dreams,” said Gardel during his acceptance speech.
Lobato thanked Gardel for trusting her with his “beautiful writing.”
“It’s so rare that I get to see the Brazil I know in books and it’s even rarer for a book like this to receive this kind of honor and I am so grateful,” she said.
The National Book Award for Translated Literature was presented by panel chair Jeremy Tiang. The presentation also featured a voice-over by actor and author Matthew McConaughey, who introduced the Translated Literature category.
“Reading literature in translation reveals the connective powers of storytelling on an international scale,” said McConaughey.
Tiang, a novelist, playwright, and translator of more than 20 books from Chinese, emphasized how translated books, which are brought to Anglophone readers through the dedication of translators and publishers, can be an essential part of the global conversation.
“At a time of great turbulence and mistrust, translated literature is more vital than it has ever been, with its ability to help us navigate an increasingly fractured world,” Tiang said. “This category has recognized books that delve into some of the most pressing issues of the day, such as Palestinian liberation and displaced people to climate change.”
"The Words That Remains" competed for this award with five other works originally written in Korean, French, Spanish and Dutch.
The National Book Award for Translated Literature was created in 1967 and presented until 1983, recognizing authors such as Julio Cortazar, Italo Calvino, Bertold Brecht, Paul Valéry, Miguel de Unamuno, Cesare Pavese and Gustave Flaubert, among others.
The award was reinstated in 2018 and last year’s recipient was Argentine writer Samanta Schweblin for her book ‘Seven Empty Houses.’
This article originally appeared on The Herald News: Portuguese-language novel receives prestigious National Book Award
