/ Published May 29, 2015
One of the defining novels of contemporary Brazilian literature, There Were Many Horses captures life in Brazil to give readers innovative ways to consider society, class, family, poverty and the survival of the human spirit.
Luiz Ruffato’s groundbreaking and award-winning Eles eram muitos cavalos (There Were Many Horses) is a singular book that embodies present-day Brazil like nothing else. The book, which debuted in 2001 in Portuguese, was translated into English by Anthony Doyle and published by AmazonCrossingEnglish in 2014.
To understand the complexities of a continent-size country, why choose a book of fiction that delineates a single day—from predawn to dead of night—in the life of the colossal city of São Paulo and its diverse districts, by way of 69 self-contained fragments? My answer is because of its breathtaking inclusivity and heart-rending portrayal of humanity, featuring migrant laborers, immigrants, consumers and go-getters in hustling survival mode.
At once tough and tender, There Were Many Horses isn’t an owner’s manual or guidebook to Brazil. It is a challenging book to read (translated into countless languages and analyzed by scholars across the globe, from whom my 2007 transnational edited volume Uma cidade em camadas [A City in Layers] emerged). The book combines hyper-honest, unembellished portraits of Brazil’s socioeconomic strata with sophisticated formal experimentation.
Ruffato is a Brazilian prose writer inspired by poetry, whose favorite world authors include Honoré de Balzac, James Joyce, Laurence Sterne, William Faulkner and Joachim Maria Machado de Assis. Ruffato is an avid reader and worldly observer of real life, whose humble origins lend a political edge to his literary mission. He publicly upholds the transforming power of literature in its role as commitment.
The book draws the reader in from all sides, much like a spectator encountering an art installation. The characters are anonymous and numerous. Ruffato focuses on the hardships of the underprivileged without romanticizing them. His original writing includes innovative techniques in the form of changing fonts, unusual punctuation and narrative variations that capture the city’s cacophony and its polyphonic registers in the form of regional dialects, rants, rural longings and reminiscences. Voicemail messages, phonebook listings, prayers, menus, signs and horoscopes share the page with memories, laments, doubts, fears, prejudices and dreams.
I rely on this book to help teach students about Brazil’s complexities beyond stereotypes. Its creative form opens up space for a multitude of wide-ranging voices to be heard, and for us as human beings to commit to better understanding one another.
Marguerite Itamar Harrison is a Sherrerd Award-winning associate professor of Portuguese.
