Milton Hatoum

Milton Hatoum was born on the 19^th August 1952; he is a Brazilian writer, translator and a professor. Milton Hatoum is one of the most eminent modern day writers of the country.

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Milton Hatoum was born in Manaus of Lebanese descent. He taught literature at the Federal University of Amazonas and at the University of California, Berkeley. Milton Hatoum has written the total of 4 novels and they are Relato de um Certo Oriente, Dois Irmãos, Cinzas do Norte, which was the winner of the Portugal Telecom Prize for Literature and the Órfãos do Eldorado. Over 200,000 copies of his books has been sold in the country and have been translated into many languages including Italian, English, French, Spanish, Danish, Czech, and Arabic.Milton Hatoum writes about destruction families in his works with the political capacity.

Early Life and Career

Milton Hatoum’s father is from Lebanon, when he was a kid, Milton Hatoum lived with the language, religion and the culture of African Jews and Arabs. He moved to the city of Brasilia and completed his secondary education in the capital city of the country at the age of 15. 

After his secondary education, Milton Hatoum moved to the city of Sao Paulo and three years later, he studies Urbanism and Architecture at the University of Sao Paulo. He moved to Spain to study based on the scholarship offered to him by Instituto Iberoamericano de Cooperación and he resided in the city of Madrid and Barcelona.  And after that, v took some postgraduate course at the University of Paris III.

After his studies, Milton Hatoum moved back to the city of Manaus and it was there that he taught French language and literature at the Universidade Federal do Amazonas. Milton Hatoum published his work called Relato de um Certo Oriente at the age of 37.

In the year 1998, Milton Hatoum became a doctor in literary theory at the University of Sao Paulo. He was not happy with the politics of the city and he had to live and move to the city of Sao Paulo.  11 years after publishing his first novel, Milton Hatoum published his second novel known as Dois Irmãos. He published so many short stories in the magazines and the newspapers of the country between the time of his first and his second novel.

Recognition

Ø  2009 São Paulo Prize for Literature — Shortlisted in the Best Book of the Year category for Órfãos do Eldorado^[3]

Novels

Ø  Relato de um Certo Oriente (Tale of a Certain Orient). São Paulo: Cia. das Letras, 1990.

Ø  Dois Irmãos (The Brothers). São Paulo: Cia. das Letras, 2000.

Ø  Cinzas do Norte (Ashes of the Amazon), 2005

Ø  Orfãos do Eldorado (Orphans of Eldorado). São Paulo: Cia. das Letras, 2008;

Short stories

Ø  A cidade ilhada

Ø  Você tem medo do quê?

Ø  Varandas da Eva