Parthian has been announced as the recipient of a PEN Translates Award for Brazilian author Nara Vidal's short story collection, Maps to Nowhere (Mapas para desaparecer).
Maps to Nowhere was published in Brazil to great acclaim, winning the 2021 Luiz Gondim Book of the Year Prize. It was also shortlisted for the prestigious Jabuti Prize the same year. Focusing on women’s experiences in Brazil, the stories tackle a number of timely issues including gender discrimination and femicide, disappearance, class inequality, and race relations, revealing the prejudice and danger beneath the veneer of modern society across the socioeconomic spectrum. The UK publication will constitute a unique addition to the vibrant market of Latin American literature in translation, introducing an exceptionally powerful voice to the limited coterie of Brazilian authors published in English. It will also disrupt the literary topography of Brazil as seen from the UK: hailing from Minas Gerais and residing in London, Vidal brings a regional and international perspective to her work, which will allow anglophone readers to transcend the pervasive Rio and São Paolo-centric vision of the country and its literature. Indeed, where Vidal artfully dovetails stories about well travelled diplomats and elites with tales of characters ensnared in the harsh realities of Brazil’s urban underclass, the collection offers a biting reflection of who is likely to shape international perceptions of the country, and whose voices are likely to be omitted.
