São Paulo – It was the year 2000 when the Brazilian Marcelo Maluf learned the story of his Lebanese grandfather. Assad Simão Maluf moved from Lebanon to Brazil in the 1920s after his two brothers were murdered by the Turkish Ottoman Empire. Marcelo, a 41-year-old writer, was hitherto unaware of this family tragedy, and took inspiration from it to write a new book, A Imensidão Íntima dos Carneiros (The Intimate Vastness of Lambs”), a novel released last September by the publisher Reformatório.
The grandfather’s father sent the former to Brazil after his two other sons died so he wouldn’t meet the same fate. And Marcelo’s grandfather never told his dad the story – he only told Marcelo’s uncle, who only came forward with it after his brother had passed. The book combines reality with fiction inspired in the Arab storytelling tradition of the Book of One Thousand and One Nights.
The novel features Marcelo himself as an invisible presence that travels to his grandfather’s home in the city of Santa Bárbara D’Oeste, São Paulo, 1966, a year prior to his death. The book tells that during that year, Assad would sit down to write his childhood memoirs and Marcelo would stand behind him, looking on. The titular lambs are a reference to the animals’ immolation in Christianity. Marcelo Maluf’s family is Christian. Additionally, according to the writer, the word Maluf means “the fattened one” in Arabic, and is used to address those who fatten up lambs.
Marcelo says his grandfather told one of his sons about his family history when the two of them were travelling together to sell textiles and someone cursed Brazil nearby. “My grandfather retorted: you don’t know what a cursed land is,” says the writer, who also tells that at this point his grandfather broke down and cried. That was when he recounted the tragic episode to his son. The story, which the grandfather did not want to be disclosed to the family, is part of Marcelo’s book. “It’s a discussion of fear,” the author says of his book, in a reference to how his family feels about war, failure etc.
A Imensidão Íntima dos Carneiros is the Lebanese-descendent writer’s first novel. He also has five children’s books out and the short stories book Esquece Tudo Agora (loosely translated as Forget About Everything Now). A native of Santa Bárbara D’Oeste, São Paulo, Marcelo holds a degree in Art Education and a master’s degree in History of Art from the São Paulo State University (Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho – Unesp).
In addition to his Lebanese paternal grandfather, Marcelo’s paternal grandmother was also of Arab descent – her family was Syrian. She arrived in Brazil at around 15 years of age and met Marcelo’s grandfather in Santa Bárbara D’Oeste, where they married and lived. However, because of his grandfather’s recollections and hurt feelings, the Arabic language was not passed on to their descendants. Marcelo never learned it, and all he inherited from Arab tradition was the fondness for the food. “The Arab culture I have in me is the flavor,” he says.
Marcelo never travelled to Lebanon, but would like to. He would also like to see his book published in Arabic. “I would like for it to at least reach Lebanon,” he says. The book is available from major bookstores across Brazil. The first launch took place in São Paulo on September 12th and a second one will be held in Santa Bárbara D’Oeste on November 28th.
Read an excerpt from the book (in Portuguese):
http://bit.ly/1Mq6tN5
A Imensidão Íntima dos Carneiros
Author: Marcelo Maluf
Publisher: Reformatório
Pages: 156
ISBN: 9788566887181
Price: BRL 35
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum