A bestselling literary sensation in Brazil, a powerful debut
short-story collection about favela life in Rio de Janeiro
In The Sun on My Head, Geovani Martins recounts the experiences of
boys growing up in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro in the early years of
the twenty-first century. Drawing on his childhood and adolescence,
Martins uses the rhythms and slang of his neighborhood dialect to
capture the texture of life in the slums, where every day is shadowed by
a ubiquitous drug culture, the constant threat of the police, and the
confines of poverty, violence, and racial oppression. And yet these are
also stories of friendship, romance, and momentary relief, as in
"Rolézim," where a group of teenagers head to the beach. Other stories,
all uncompromising in their realism and yet diverse in narrative form,
explore the changes that occur when militarized police occupy the
favelas in the lead-up to the World Cup, the cycles of violence in the
narcotics trade, and the feelings of invisibility that define the
realities of so many in Rio's underclass.
The Sun on My Head is a work of great talent and sensitivity, a daring
evocation of life in the favelas by a rising star rooted in the
community he portrays.