Join us for the launch of Bernardo Kucinski's novella 'The Congress of the Disappeared', translated by Tom Gatehouse and published by Latin America Bureau & Practical Action Publishing.

In Kucinski’s novella, the ghosts of those disappeared by Brazil’s military dictatorship come together with iconic figures from Brazilian history and more recent victims of state and para-state violence to organize a congress.

In this imagined space, Kucinski draws a line from the state violence of Brazil’s military dictatorship (and since) to the genocide and slavery of the colonial period in Latin America. He gives a voice to the victims, especially the disappeared, allowing them to challenge the attempt to erase them from history and denounce a culture of impunity which continues to pollute Brazilian politics today.

Event hosted by LAB, Brazil Matters, and Amnesty International UK Latin America coordinators.

Speakers:

Bernardo Kucinski (author)

Tom Gatehouse (translator)

Sheila Royce (Amnesty International UK Latin America coordinator)

Ali Rocha (Brazil Matters)

Bernardo Kucinski (b. 1937, São Paulo) is a Brazilian journalist, writer, and political scientist. He has received Brazil’s Jabuti Award on two occasions and was awarded the Brazilian National Library Literary Price in 2014. Kucinski has been a professor at the University of São Paulo, a collaborator with Brazil’s Workers’ Party, and served as advisor to the President of the Republic during the first term of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The Congress of The Disappeared, The Past is an Imperfect Tense (both translated by Tom Gatehouse), and K (translated by Sue Branford) are all published by the Latin American Bureau in partnership with Practical Action Publishing.