The Dark Side of Skin
by Jeferson Tenório
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Life under Brazil's brutal "cordial racism" comes painfully alive in this novel of fathers and sons.
How do you become the protagonist of your own life? For Pedro, it means searching for himself in the objects his father left behind: the layers that make up his life, and that of his parents, and the circumstances, geographies, and wounds that shaped them all. It's an archaeology of affections, but also of life in southern Brazil, where being black on the streets of Porto Alegre manifests violences large and small. Where being a young woman, raised by a single mother, may find you seeking security in the untrustworthy arms of men.
In Dark Side of Skin, Jeferson Ten³rio takes on fathers and sons, Shakespeare and Cervantes, and the inescapable bonds and burdens of family and history in one delicately rendered, painfully precise account of loved ones lost and found.
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Book Details
- ISBN
- 9781913867737
- Binding
- Paperback
- Authors
- Jeferson Tenório
- Publisher
- Charco Press
- Published Date
- February 20, 2024
- Language
- English
- Pages
- 202
- Physical Info
- 7.7 in L x 5 in W (0.55 lb)
Winner of the most important Brazilian literature prize, The Dark Side of Skin is set in what is called the most racist city of Brazil, Porto Alegre. The story is narrated in the second person. Pedro, the son, tells the story of his father, Henrique. The way the story is narrated gives a more conversational tone to the narrative, it looks like Pedro is talking to his deceased father.The narrator tells the reader how difficult it is the life of a black boy in this city in Brazil’s South. Talking about his dad’s life, Pedro discusses systematic racism, police brutality, profiling, dysfunctional families, the failing educational system, and how, most of the times, our society doesn’t even take into consideration the struggles of black women.This book is a punch in the gut. Tenório considers his book a reflex of the apartheid we live in. It reveals the abyss among people in our society, culminating in a network of injustices and oppression on vulnerable portions of the population that are usurped and violated in their spaces, subjectivities and identities. The Dark Side of Skin is one of those books that should be a mandatory read, specially in Brazil.
