‘Will make you blush, gasp, become aroused then feel weird about it, laugh a lot’ Holly Pester, author of The Lodgers
‘A modern master of disturbance’ TLS
A wild, grotesque satire of male sexuality and pleasure-seeking from one of Brazil's most important modern writers - part Clarice Lispector, part Marquis de Sade
Karl is a wealthy libertine who seeks an answer to life’s mysteries through sex. Frustrated and amoral, he composes a sequence of depraved letters to his chaste sister, Cordélia. His story becomes entwined with that of the impoverished poet Stamatius, who finds his letters in the trash, as Hilst sets off an ingenious play of language and identity that parodies the most gruesome excesses of masculine sexuality.
An endlessly playful novel that pilfers from Joyce as much as de Sade, Letters from a Seducer is a work of perverse genius by one of Brazil's greatest modern writers.
Part of the Pushkin Press Classics series: timeless storytelling by icons of literature, hand-picked from around the globe
Translated by John Keene
Hilda Hilst (1930-2004) was born in Jaú, a small town in the state of São Paulo. She studied law at the University of São Paulo before dedicating herself to writing from 1954. She published novels, poetry and plays and won many prestigious literary prizes, gaining recognition as one of the most significant and controversial figures in Brazilian literature. The Obscene Madame D is also available from Pushkin Press.
