What does Brazilian literature mean to you? Football and favelas, carnival and caipirinhas? Or perhaps, past these cliches, a multifarious literary landscape comes into view?

Spanning 150 years of Brazilian history, these stories are a thrilling cross-section of a diverse short story culture. Ranging from luscious avant-garde writing by Clarice Lispector to realist wit by Machado de Assis, The Penguin Book of Brazilian Short Stories takes in wild humour, heart-breaking drama, the legacy of slavery, the influence of waves of immigration, and a surprising preponderance of ants. Ethnicity, family and loyalty collide in Chico Buarque’s ‘The Cousins from Campos’; and a man who absolutely does not know Javanese builds a career as a translator in Lima Barreto’s ‘The Man Who Knew Javanese’.

Stories also comes with a note from the translator, illuminating the creative process of translation, and the anthology is supported by exploratory apparatus from editors Daniel Hahn and Padma Viswanathan. Rich, thought-provoking and playful, The Penguin Book of Brazilian Short Stories is a landmark text.