Occupation

"This is one beautiful book."—Mia CoutoKnown and celebrated in Brazil and abroad for his novel Resistance , Julián Fuks returns to his auto-fictional alter ego Sebastián in a narrative alternating between the writer’s conversations with refugees occupying a building in downtown São Paulo, his father’s sickness, and his wife’s pregnancy. With impeccable prose, the author builds associations that go beyond the obvious, not only between glimpsing a life's beginning and end, but also between the building’s occupation and his wife's pregnancy — showcasing the various forms of occupation while exposing the frailty of life, the risk of solitude and the brutality of not belonging.

About the Author :
Julián Fuks was born in São Paulo in 1981 and is the son of Argentinian parents. As an author whose work has garnered several top international literary prizes, Fuks has gained recognition as one of Brazil’s most outstanding young writers. He has worked as a reporter for the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo and as a reviewer for the magazine Cult . Fuks is the author of Histórias de literatura e cegueira (2007) and Procura do romance (2011), both shortlisted for the Oceanos Award as well as for the Jabuti Award. During 2017, Julián Fuks worked alongside Mia Couto as part of the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative. Considered by Fuks to be his most important work to date, Resistance was the winner of the Jabuti Award for Book of the Year (2016), the Oceanos Prize (2016), the José Saramago Literary Prize (2017) and the Anna Seghers Prize (2018). He currently lives in São Paulo. Daniel Hahn is a writer, editor and translator with over one hundred books to his name. His translations (from Portuguese, Spanish and French) include fiction from Europe, Africa and the Americas and non-fiction by writers ranging from Portuguese Nobel laureate José Saramago to Brazilian footballer Pelé. Recent books include the new Oxford Companion to Children's Literature and translations of Julián Fuks’ Resistance and Occupation . He is a former chair of the Society of Authors and is presently on the board of a number of organisations that deal with literature, literacy, translation and free expression. In 2021 Daniel was made an OBE for his services to literature. Julián Fuks was born in São Paulo in 1981 and is the son of Argentinian parents. As an author whose work has garnered several top international literary prizes, Fuks has gained recognition as one of Brazil’s most outstanding young writers. He has worked as a reporter for the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo and as a reviewer for the magazine Cult . Fuks is the author of Histórias de literatura e cegueira (2007) and Procura do romance (2011), both shortlisted for the Oceanos Award as well as for the Jabuti Award. During 2017, Julián Fuks worked alongside Mia Couto as part of the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative. Considered by Fuks to be his most important work to date, Resistance was the winner of the Jabuti Award for Book of the Year (2016), the Oceanos Prize (2016), the José Saramago Literary Prize (2017) and the Anna Seghers Prize (2018). He currently lives in São Paulo. Daniel Hahn is a writer, editor and translator with over one hundred books to his name. His translations (from Portuguese, Spanish and French) include fiction from Europe, Africa and the Americas and non-fiction by writers ranging from Portuguese Nobel laureate José Saramago to Brazilian footballer Pelé. Recent books include the new Oxford Companion to Children's Literature and translations of Julián Fuks’ Resistance and Occupation . He is a former chair of the Society of Authors and is presently on the board of a number of organisations that deal with literature, literacy, translation and free expression. In 2021 Daniel was made an OBE for his services to literature.

Review :
"Fiction to look out for in 2021." —The Observer "...a thoughtful, intimate exploration of how people literally and figuratively occupy their own stories and those of others." —Publishers Weekly "Poignant, thought-provoking and engaging." —The Scotsman "Wholly mesmerising." —Irish Times "Best books of 2021" —The Financial Times "This is one beautiful book."" —Mia Couto "A slender yet striking novel." —Hopscotch Translation "Occupation asks a lot of its readers, but it gives in equal measure; and when you do come up for air, you look around you with a renewed and invigorated sense of the space you occupy in your own life. Superb." —Lunate "A quiet masterpiece." —Asymptote "In Fuks’ prose occupation and resistance walk hand-in-hand." —Full Stop ********** Praise for Julián Fuks Part of The New York Times' The Decameron Project: New Fiction. International Dublin Literature Prize (Longlist) English PEN (Award) José Saramago Literary Prize (Winner) Jabuti Award for Best Foreign Edition (Winner) Oceanos Prize for Literature in Portuguese (Winner) Jabuti Award for Book of the Year (Winner) Anna Seghers Prize (Winner) "This small book carries a big punch...Fuks is a young writer to watch." —The Guardian "Fuks’s skill lies in his quiet exploration of how exclusion — willed or imposed — shapes experience within families." —New York Times "Fuks’ prose is rythmic and patterned." —The Times Literary Supplement "Eloquent, unsettling and deeply philosophical." —The Financial Times "This elegant, essayistic novel, the first translated into English by this Brazilian writer, is a family drama with the dramatic parts deliberately quieted.... Fuks impressively inhabits the near despair that comes with the fragmentation of family and country." —Kirkus "Fuk’s work, while challenging in form, comes together in a powerful way. This is a thoughtful novel about identity and exile." —Publishers Weekly "Resistance is an urgent and profound novel, a meditation on family, home and dislocation. Fuks focuses on a single family living in Brazil, years after fleeing Argentina. One of the best novels I've read concerning the generation after Brazil's military regime. Fuks' writing is sharp and humane, intimate and lyrical. A stunning work." —Mark Haber, Brazos Bookstore "A brilliant achievement." —Le Monde **********