With sales on the rise, leading publishers in the country deliver their news

Despite the multitude of titles, the launch of a new work always generates curiosity and brings an air of renewal to bookstore shelves.

And every month, publishers usually bring literary novelties that can generate this sensation – and attract even more readers.

Journalist Vitória Merola, 22, is one of those readers who eagerly awaits the releases. “I follow both on social networks and on publishers’ pages to find out when a new book will arrive,” she says.

One of the reasons is the lower value of a work in relation to the text in the original language. Vitória says that books in English, for example, usually cost four times more than their translated versions.

She reads about 20 books a year and says that in 2020, she spent approximately R$900 on her personal library. Her goal is to read at least one book a week.

Vitória is just one of the readers who show that sales are on the rise in the sector. According to data from a survey of Nielsen BookScan , in the first months of 2022, book sales surpassed by 16.30% the volume sold in the same period last year. By April, there are already 10 million books sold.

To find out about the latest news, CNN talked with publishers Rocco, Intrinseca, UBU, Leya and Martins Fontes about the main indications of the moment.

Rocco

“A Cabeça Cortada de Ana Justa”, by Rosa Amanda Strausz, was the book recommended by Ana Lima, editor of Rocco. The work has already been released and it is possible to buy it on the company’s website for R$ 59.90.

“Rosa-Amanda’s first adult novel comes at a time when interest in fantastical realism is renewed. As a bonus, we have a lineage of strong female protagonists, colonial Brazil and the injustices of slavery, a little bit of horror and some love stories. Imagery and extremely commercial”, says the editor.

The story revolves around a gigantic sesmaria, donated by a Portuguese nobleman to a French barber-surgeon, target of dispute and curse.

Throughout the work, when an ambitious overseer dishonors the body and history of an enslaved priestess, it is the land that suffers and, with her, Dona Justa, the rezadeira who is heir by right.

Her powers told her that this land was tied to her destiny – hers and her descendants. Seven generations lived there, each leaving its mark. How is it possible to break a spell written on the very soul of a place?

“’Dona Justa’s severed head’ is our national bet for the first semester in fiction”, declares Rosa Amanda.

intrinsic

Cristhiane Ruiz, editor of Intrinseca, told the CNN , the book “Bullet Train”, by Kotaro Isaka. According to her, the interest in publishing the book came from the idea of ​​introducing the author to the Brazilian reader, “who is a critical and public success in Japan”.

“We reviewed this book before we even heard about the film adaptation, and the story caught us right away: a high-speed, inventive and original journey. It’s a sensational thriller that subverts all the rules of what we’re used to reading and has the craziest and most charismatic characters in recent times. Good entertainment.”

Isaka is a bestselling author in Japan and has won several international literature awards. His books have sold millions of copies and more than 10 of his works have already won audiovisual adaptations. And “Trem-Bala” is the author’s first title published in Brazil.

The plot follows a series of curious characters who share the same train, including a psychopathic teenager, a pair of assassins who are on a mission to rescue the son of a crime boss and deliver a mysterious suitcase, and a man hired to steal that suitcase. . Throughout the journey, their stories intertwine and the plot grows in tension. The book will be released in Brazil on May 24th.

UBU

Florencia Ferrari, editorial director of the UBU, indicated the book “Seleta Erótica de Mário de Andrade”, organized by Elaine Robert Moraes. The release of the work is scheduled for May 21.

“This year, we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Semana Moderna de 22, in which Mário de Andrade was one of the literary highlights. The teacher and essayist Elaine decided to cut out and point out a facet of Mário’s work that has not been much discussed: sexuality”.

The book features a censored excerpt from Macunaíma and a series of published and unpublished texts extracted from Mário’s work, “to show how his work exuded eroticism”, highlighted Florencia.

Last night I had a dream, a very daring dream: I felt the shape of your dress in my bed.

Mario de Andrade

Mário de Andrade’s work is permeated by a deep concern about sex. And it was from these findings that Eliane produced the “Seleta Erótica de Mário de Andrade”.

The selection work sought to contemplate both the variety of genres he practiced and the different phases of his work, without neglecting biographical or editorial aspects.

Although the volume has privileged the most representative titles in terms of eroticism, with particular attention to canonical texts, it was considered pertinent to present examples of the “immature work”, still little known, in addition to samples of the great mass of manuscripts not yet published.

leya

Leila Name, director general of LeYa Brasil, recommended the book “Governar the world without world government”, by Roberto Mangabeira Unger.

For her, “the author generously brings together his deep knowledge and study, which places him at the highest level of contemporary thinkers, in favor of Brazilians’ self-esteem”.

“Unger provokes us to recover our own vitality, which can remove us from the peripheral and worn-out place of the models of the New World Order, returning the reins of our history to our hands. It gives us the future back by analyzing our past and courageously confronting our present,” he added.

In this 64-page book, originally written in English, Unger explores “special purpose coalitions, coalitions of similar states and regional coalitions; it is about global governance without a single decision maker and about reciprocal guarantees of the vital security interests of big and small powers”.

The writer also addresses the development of a common public international law and states that “only through international cooperation can we ensure global public goods that are essential for the development of contemporary societies and avoid evils – such as war between the great powers and the compromise of the environment”. environment – ​​that threaten us all.

The release is scheduled for this month.

Martins Fontes

The CEO of Martins Fontes, Alexandre Martins, indicated the work that will be released in June: “The Fall of Satan”, by Gustavo Piqueira.

“Gustavo Piqueira’s editorial production offers an unparalleled contribution to the construction of a new aesthetic for the book. Satan’s fall combines with rare beauty and mastery, design, history, art and literature. By thinking of the book as an object, the author, at the same time, questions the limits and reveres this extraordinary product.”

The book talks about the representation of the devil since the Middle Ages, mixing iconographic research with graphic montages.