What Is Mine

(Paperback)

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In What Is Mine, sociologist Jose Henrique Bortoluci uses interviews with his father, Didi, to retrace the recent history of Brazil and of his family.

From the mid-1960s to the mid-2010s, Didi's work as a truck driver took him away from home for long stretches at a time as he crisscrossed the country and participated in huge infrastructure projects including the Trans-Amazonian Highway, a scheme spearheaded by the military dictatorship of the time, undertaken through brutal deforestation. An observer of history, Didi also recounts the toll his work has taken on his health, from a heart attack in middle age to the cancer that defines his retirement.

Bortoluci weaves the history of a nation with that of a man, uncovering parallels between cancer and capitalism - both sustained by expansion, both embodiments of 'the gospel of growth at any cost' - and tracing the distance that class has placed between him and his father. Influenced by authors such as Annie Ernaux and Svetlana Alexievich,

What Is Mine is a moving, thought-provoking and brilliantly constructed examination of the scars we carry, as people and as countries.

Reviews

'A son's journey, around father and country, subtle and complex, tender andbrutal; an intimate work of rare beauty and power.'- Philippe Sands, author of East West Street

'What Is Mine is an unforgettable oral history of truck driving along the potholedroads carving up the Amazon rainforest: bandits, sleep deprivation,beef barbecued on the engine. It is also an incisive political critique of ecocidalideas of "progress", a powerful reflection on the ways labour shapes ahuman body, and a loving exploration of a relationship between a fatherand son. It already has the feel of a classic.'- Caleb Klaces, author of Fatherhood

Author Bio

Rahul Bery is based in Cardiff, Wales and translates fromSpanish and Portuguese to English. His published translationsinclude novels by Vicente Luis Mora, Afonso Cruz,Simone Campos and David Trueba.