Itamar Vieira Junior
Itamar Vieira Junior is an award-winning Brazilian writer born in Salvador in 1979. He holds a PhD in Ethnic and African Studies and is the author of short stories, children's books, and novels, including Crooked Plow (Torto Arado) and Saving the Fire (Salvar o Fogo). Crooked Plow won multiple literary prizes, was shortlisted for the 2024 International Booker Prize, has been translated into more than 30 languages, and been adapted for the stage.
Colombia
Crooked Plow follows twin sisters Bibiana and Belonísia in Brazil’s impoverished Bahia as a childhood accident binds them through language and suffering, leading one to become her sister’s voice in a community still trapped in post-slavery exploitation. Amid spiritual traditions and grassroots activism, their intertwined stories pulse with resilience, a testament to their enduring fight against systemic injustice.
The highly anticipated new novel from Itamar tells the story of Moisés who lives with his father and sister in a Brazilian village dominated by the local monastery. His mother having died mysteriously, Moisés is raised by his sister Luzia, a young woman rumored to be a witch and despised by the villagers. Luzia seeks protection from the monastery, where she gets a job as a laundress and where Moisés receives an education. In time, something triggers her brother to rebel and run away from home. Luzia finds herself wholly alone, fighting for the family’s land and for her life. Unknown to her, Moisés, too, has put himself on the front line of an ancient conflict between colonial oppressors and the dispossessed.

