Bruna Dantas Lobato reads from Stênio Gardel’s THE WORDS THAT REMAIN (New Vessel Press, 2023)

A letter has beckoned to Raimundo since he received it over fifty years ago from his youthful passion, handsome Cícero. But having grown up in an impoverished area of Brazil where the demands of manual labor thwarted his becoming literate, Raimundo has long been unable to read.

As young men, he and Cícero fell in love, only to have Raimundo’s father brutally beat his son when he discovered their affair. Even after Raimundo succeeds in making a life for himself in the big city, he continues to be haunted by this secret missive full of longing from the distant past. Now at age seventy-one, he at last acquires a true education and the ability to access the letter. Exploring Brazil’s little-known hinterland as well its urban haunts, this is a sweeping novel of repression, violence, and shame, along with their flip side: survival, endurance, and the ultimate triumph of an unforgettable figure on society’s margins. The Words That Remain explores the universal power of the written word and language, and how they affect all our relationships.

Translator bio
Bruna Dantas Lobato is a Brazilian writer and literary translator who lives in St. Louis.

Author bio
Stênio Gardel was born in 1980 in the rural northeast of Brazil. The Words That Remain is his first novel. It was nominated in two major Brazilian literary awards: São Paulo Literature Award 2022 for best debut novel and Jabuti Award 2022 for best literary novel.

"Auspicious debut . . . This wistful novel introduces a worthy new voice."—Publishers Weekly

"Disarmingly tender and feverishly sad, Gardel's love story is a delirium of a novel that reminds its readers of an uncomfortable truth: that even a life of regret can be a beautiful one."—Patrick Nathan, author of Some Hell

"Incredible debut work . . . Packs a literal and figurative punch . . . Through swirling reflections, the novel moves like a steady whirlwind, conveying inner turmoil and external inaction, punctuated by powerful sometimes devastating change."—Asymptote

"Poetic and intense."—University of Southern California literary journal Air/Light

"An LGBTQ+ novel from Brazil, The Words That Remain is about the damage that brutality, illiteracy and widespread homophobia do to self-love and happiness; it also illustrates the resilience of wanting to love and to be loved and accepted by oneself."—Foreword Reviews

"A heartbreaking debut novel . . . The Words That Remain is not just a love story but an expression of queer desire, struggle, and resilience in spaces outside of romantic love. Gardel's text and Lobato's translation create a puzzle that the reader is trying to solve . . . Through this process the reader is brought along on the journey of companionship, family, and love."—Reading in Translation

"Gardel's ferocious debut novel roars from a deep pit of longing and puts repressed desire in a chokehold, mining it for any and all of its redemptive qualities. Despite its brevity, the novel feels like an epic."—Necessary Fiction

"An ambitious addition to the growing body of international LGBTQ literature ... Sadness and joy blend together in The Words That Remain to paint a moving story."—roughghosts

Links to buy:

https://newvesselpress.com/books/the-...

https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-word...

https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-word...

The translator has obtained permission from the original rights holder to translate this sample and share a recording of it on Translators Aloud.