When the packed No. 174 bus was attacked in Rio de Janeiro on June 12, 2000, the world stood still. All eyes were fixed on the unfolding hostage situation, with both Brazilian and international media covering the event. The next day, even as the background of the crime slowly came into focus and the life of the hostage-taker – who had been murdered in police custody – was being scrutinized, a no less tragic crime was unfolding nearby. Two men kidnapped and murdered a car dealer—their victim: C., the brother of Carla Bessa, who, in days, lives, traces the events, connects them, and finds—if not meaning, then at least form – for “two lives in two days / two days / lives,” which began long before those days in June 2000 and continue to influence the author’s own life long afterward.
Carla Bessa, born in Rio de Janeiro in 1967, studied acting and has been living between Rio and Berlin since 2013, working as a writer and translator into Portuguese (including works by Ingeborg Bachmann, Max Frisch, and Thomas Macho). Her collection of short stories Urubus, which was also published in German by Transit Verlag, was awarded the Prêmio Jabuti and the Prêmio Literário Biblioteca Nacional in 2020.
“Carla Bessa’s novel doesn’t ask questions or seek answers; rather, it finds a way to express the inexpressible on a formal level. That is precisely where its literary strength lies.”
– Martina Kopf, literaturkritik.de
