Guest of the ilb 2003
Paulo Lins was born in
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1958 and grew up in Brazil’s most notorious
favela, known to its residents as Cidade de Deus, the City of God.
The writer, anthropologist and teacher used his personal
experiences as the basis of his 1997 novel 'Cidade de Deus'. The
book, which he worked on for over eight years, took its impulse from an
academic study of the favelas that Lins was involved in. It
describes the development of the City of God in three parts, from a
social housing project in the 60’s, to the ghetto it deteriorated into
in the course of the late 70’s. The angry young hero’s life is
ruled by violence and drugs. However, at the same time
the author opens our eyes to the other side of life in the ghetto, to
the very individual culture it has produced and which is manifested in
its own language, fashion and music. Celebrated by critics and
readers in Brazil, the book has so far also been published in Portugal,
Italy, France, Sweden, Spain and in Catalan. The novel was made
into a film in 2002, which was also a resounding international
success. The Brazilian director Fernando Mereilles, originally a
very successful director of television commercials, quotes Victor Hugo
by way of ironic explanation for the worldwide response to the
film: "Talk about your village, and you’ll be universal."
Lins was co-founder of the Cooperativa de Poetas, a group set up
in the 70’s to give young authors the chance to publish their
work. His poetry collection 'Sob o Sol' (1986, Engl: Under the
Sun) was a result of this cooperation. He is a member of the jury
of the renowned Premio Casa de las Américas. He is currently
working on a book about slavery in Brazil since the 15th century, in
which he intends to carry out a fictional reconstruction of the history
of a Brazilian family descended from slaves, right back to their
African forefathers. Lins lives in Rio de Janeiro.
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