Noite (Night) is a novel written by Brazilian writer Érico Veríssimo in 1954.[1][2]
![]() First edition | |
Author | Érico Veríssimo |
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Language | Portuguese |
Genre | Drama, Mystery |
Publication date | 1954 |
Publication place | Brazil |
Media type | Print (Paperback) |
Plot summary
editIn the 1950s, a man finds himself in the middle of the streets of Porto Alegre with a wallet full of money... and no memory of any past events.
He finds two "vultures of the night", enigmatic noctivague figures with a high penchant for bohemian lifestyles. The "vultures" (called The Master and The Hunchback) take the man on a surrealistic journey through the darkest places of the city, to "enjoy the night": a funeral parlor, the emergency service of a hospital, a deluxe whorehouse and a low-level working class cabaret.
At the same time, the two enigmatic figures surreptitiously try to make the man-with-no-memory assume that he committed a horrendous crime early that night, in which a woman was the subject of a brutal passion-related crime and no perpetrator was yet arrested by the police.
The book has a unique atmosphere in depicting the low-level bohemy that crowded some places in the Brazilian urban legends.
In the 1980s, Brazilian film director José Louzeiro conducted a movie loosely based on the book.
References
edit- ^ Forster, Merlin H. (1962). "Structure and Meaning in Érico Veríssimo's "Noite"". Hispania. 45 (4): 712–716. doi:10.2307/337356. ISSN 0018-2133. JSTOR 337356.
- ^ Smith, Richard Cándida (2013). "Érico Veríssimo, a Brazilian Cultural Ambassador in the United States". Tempo. 17 (34): 147–173. doi:10.5533/tem-1980-542x-2013173412. ISSN 1980-542X.