From “Barren Lives”

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Notes on contributors

Graciliano Ramos

Graciliano Ramos (1892-1953) lived as a child on a farm in the sertão of Pernambuco, where the droughts made a deep impression on him. Self-taught, he became a proofreader for newspapers in Rio de Janeiro but later returned to the Northeast where he began his career as a novelist after suffering family tragedies, including the deaths of his sisters and brother from the bubonic plague. He worked tirelessly for school reform and in 1936 was accused of communist ties and imprisoned by the Getúlio Vargas regime. Ramos is noted for his acute portraits of the psychology of the sertanejo.

Vidas secas (1938; Barren Lives, 1965) is considered one of Ramos’s greatest works. The structure of the book reflects the cycle of drought in the Northeast and recounts the lives of Fabiano, his wife Vitória, their two children, and the dog Baleia, who has become a memorable character in Brazilian fiction. The novel illustrates the themes of social inequality and the sertanejo’s fatalistic awareness that life will not improve. The chapter titled “Baleia” is iconic in its representation of the relationship of man, land, and animal in the harsh sertão.