José Falero: 'If people started robbing cars en masse, that would be a political event'

We've heard already this summer from Joyce Carol Oates and Fiona Mozley, but now the translator Maria Jacqueline Evans turns interpreter as we talk – via the magic of email – to José Falero.

He tells us why he wanted to look at the violence of a flash kidnapping from the inside in his short story Flash of Dignity, and what drives his characters to attack a woman at gunpoint and throw her in the boot of her own car. According to Falero, capitalism is to blame: "Guarantee that people have access to consumption and they won’t rob from anyone."

Even though he wrote the story in a Porto Alegre dialect, he continues, it has struck a chord with people all over Brazil because people all over Brazil are struggling with the same problems. And how do you fix the outrageous inequalities which are at the heart of all this? Falero’s answer is simple: diversity.

Next time we'll joined by Donal McLaughlin with Sabba Khan following after.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.