Book, Songs of Torment[LS]

Language: Brazilian Portuguese. The third and long-awaited book by one of the main voices in Brazilian poetry. Eight years after the publication of the now famous Um uterus is the size of a fist — released in 2012 by Cosac Naify and reissued in 2017 by Companhia das Letras —, Canções de tormentar brings the sharp look of a poet who, with intelligence and irony, observe yourself and the world. The poems recall childhood in the South, with the araçá tree planted by their grandmother, report the futile effort of trying to understand today's Brazil and discuss injustice, machismo and nostalgia for a nation that was nothing more than a project. In “Porto Alegre, 2016”, which deals with migration and street protests, violently curbed by public order, the poet writes: “now the spoon falls from the mouth/ and the sound of a bomb is outside/ and the police go to over your affections/ armed with swords, on horses”. Songs of Torment brings together poems that are sometimes fierce, sometimes disillusioned, without ever losing sight of the urgency, vivacity, humor and incisive tone that have established Angélica as one of the most original names in contemporary literature.