Longlisted for the National Book Award for Translated LiteratureUrgent investigative essays
covering a wide range of humanity in Brazil from the Amazon to the favelasEliane Brum is a
star journalist in Brazil known for her polyphonic writing that gives voice to people often
underrepresented in popular literature. Brum's reporting takes her into Brazil's most
marginalized communities: she visits the Amazon to understand the practice of indigenous
midwives stays in São Paulo's favelas to witness the joy of a marriage and the tragedy of
young men dying due to drugs and guns and wades through the mud to capture the boom and bust
of modern-day gold rushes. Brum is an enormously sensitive and perceptive interlocutor and as
she visits these places she provides intimate glimpses into both everyday and extraordinary
lives: a poor father on the way to bury his son a street performer who eats glass a woman
living out her final 115 days and a hoarder rescuing the leftover souls of the city.The
Collector of Leftover Souls showcases the best of Brum's work from two books combining short
profiles with longer reported pieces. These vibrant missives range across current issues such
as the human cost of exploiting natural resources the Belo Monté Dam's eradication of a way of
life for those on the banks of the Xingu River and the contrast between urban centers and
remote villages. Told in the vibrant and idiomatic language of the people Brum writes about
The Collector of Leftover Souls is a vital work of investigative journalism from an
internationally acclaimed author.
