Only two Brazilian writers made it internationally: Paulo Coelho, best-selling author of mystical parables, and Jorge Amado, the politically engaged storyteller that eviscerated the society of the state of Bahia.
Amado, who would be a 100 next year, was active in the Communist Party and his social concerns show in his literature. “Capitães de Areia” (Captains of the Sand), one of his first books, published in 1937, tells the story of street kids from Salvador, Bahia’s capital. It was converted into a film to be released in Brazil next October by Cecília Amado, grand-daughter of Jorge. The score was produced by Carlinhos Brown.
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“Only two Brazilian writers made it internationally?”
What about Machado de Assis? What about Rubem Fonseca? What about Patricia Melo? There are probably others I can’t think of.
Frankly, Adrian, I am not sure that we can compare the international popularity of Machado and Paulo Coelho. Machado is absolutely phenomenal, but I believe he is only known to a very restrict fraction of the intellectual elite. The same applies to the other authors you mentioned (and Clarice Lispector, and Guimarães Rosa, and Graciliano Ramos). Once Jorge Amado told me, in a brief interview, a few years before he died, that, in the country, only Coelho and himself could support themselves with their book sales. I think the same is true concerning international penetration of Brazilian literature. The truth is: even Amado is only marginally known out of the country, if compared to Coelho. Sort of sad, isn’t it.