- a spider weaves, weaves
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- #6 — a spider weaves, weaves
Hello.
This month’s newsletter will be a little shorter, but here I am with another recommended translation, and an obligatory reminder for you to add BUT NOT TOO BOLD to Goodreads and pre-order it, if you haven’t already (huge thanks to those that already did!).
And, like always, if you can help, here is a thread with donation links for the people of Sudan.
See you next month!
Hache 🕷️
Of Cattle and Men 🇧🇷 De Gados e Homens
(Ana Paula Maia, 2013, trans. Zoë Perry)
Every day, Edgar Wilson stuns and dispatches dozens—if not hundreds—of cows to be slaughtered. He takes no pleasure in this thankless job, but that doesn’t make him any less efficient: someone must stun the animals before they’re killed, just like there would be no meat without demand. It’s how the world is. His world, at least. The cows, however, have been acting strangely, and when many of them jump to their deaths, he knows something very wrong is happening to them.
This novella is absolutely relentless, brutal and stark, and it’s full of moral questions that have no easy answer. It presents a desolate scenery that could be cynical, but is never heartless, and a protagonist that struggles between his own ruthlessness and compassion.