Moacyr Scliar
Moacyr Jaime Scliar was a Brazilian writer and physician. Most of his writing centers on issues of Jewish identity in the Diaspora and particularly on being Jewish in Brazil.
Scliar is best known outside Brazil for his 1981 novel Max and the Cats, the story of a young German man who flees Berlin after he comes to the attention of the Nazis for having had an affair with a married woman. En route to Brazil, his ship sinks, and he finds himself alone in a dinghy with a jaguar who had been travelling in the hold.
Background
Scliar was born in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, into a Jewish family that immigrated to Brazil from Bessarabia in 1919. He graduated in medicine in 1962, majoring in public health. He first worked at the Jewish Hospital for the Elderly in Porto Alegre, and later worked in the public health field in tuberculosis prevention and treatment.Writing
A prolific writer, Scliar published over 100 books in Portuguese, covering various literary genres: short stories; novels; young adult fiction; children's books; and essays.In 1962, his first book Stories of a Doctor in Training was published, although later on he regretted having published it so young. His second book The Carnival of the Animals was published in 1968.
In a recent autobiographical piece, Scliar discusses his membership of the Jewish, medical, Gaucho, and Brazilian tribes. His novel The Centaur in the Garden was included among the 100 Greatest Works of Modern Jewish Literature by The National Yiddish Book Center. In an interview with Judith Bolton-Fasman published in The Jewish Reader, August 2003, Scliar commented on his use of the centaur as a metaphor: "The centaur is a symbol of the double identity, characteristic of Jews in a country like Brazil. At home, you speak Yiddish, eat gefilte fish, and celebrate Shabbat. But in the streets, you have soccer, samba, and Portuguese. After a while you feel like a centaur."
Translations
Scliar's fiction has been translated into English, Dutch, French, Swedish, German, Spanish, Italian, Hebrew, Czech, Serbian, Georgian, Slovene and Danish. His translated fiction is listed in the UNESCO international bibliography of translations.Awards and recognitions
- 2003 — Elected a lifetime member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters.
- 2009 São Paulo Prize for Literature — Shortlisted in the Best Book of the Year category for Manual da Paixão Solitária
- 2010 São Paulo Prize for Literature — Chosen to serve as a member of the Final Jury
Works in English
Books
- The Centaur in the Garden, Translator: Margaret A. Neves
- The Gods of Raquel, Translator: Eloah F. Giacomelli
- The One-Man Army, Translator: Eloah F. Giacomelli
- The Carnival of the Animals, Translator: Eloah F. Giacomelli
- The Ballad of the False Messiah, Translator: Eloah F. Giacomelli
- The Strange Nation of Rafael Mendes, Translator: Eloah F. Giacomelli
- The Volunteers, Translator: Eloah F. Giacomelli
- The Enigmatic Eye, Translator: Eloah F. Giacomelli
- Max and the Cats , Translator: Eloah F. Giacomelli
- The Collected Stories of Moacyr Scliar, Translator: Eloah F. Giacomelli
- The War in Bom Fim, Translator: David William Foster
- Kafka's Leopards, Translator: Thomas O. Beebee
- The Woman Who Wrote the Bible, Translator: Heath Wing
Short Stories in Anthologies
- Inside My Dirty Head - The Holocaust, translator Eloah F. Giacomelli, in TROPICAL SYNAGOGUES: SHORT STORIES BY JEWISH LATIN AMERICAN WRITERS, editor Ilan Stavans
- The Plagues, translator Eloah F. Giacomelli, in A HAMMOCK BENEATH THE MANGOES - STORIES FROM LATIN AMERICA, editor Thomas ColchieVan Gogh's Ear, translator Eloah F. Giacomelli, in THE VINTAGE BOOK OF LATIN AMERICAN STORIES, editors Carlos Fuentes and Julio OrtegaThe Prophets of Benjamin Bok, translator Eloah F. Giacomelli, in WITH SIGNS AND WONDER: AN INTERNATIONAL ANTHOLOGY OF JEWISH FABULIST FICTION, editor Daniel M. JaffeThe Ballad of the False Messiah, translator Eloah F. Giacomelli, in THE OXFORD BOOK OF JEWISH STORIES, editor Ilan Stavans
- The Cow; The Last Poor Man, translator Eloah F. Giacomelli, in THE OXFORD ANTHOLOGY OF THE BRAZILIAN SHORT STORY, editor K. David Jackson