Novel
The Centaur in the Garden
O centauro no jardim
Moacyr Scliar · 1980
Synopsis
Guedali Tartakovsky, the fourth child of Russian Jewish immigrants settled in Quatro Irmãos, in the interior of Rio Grande do Sul, is born a centaur: a man down to the waist, a horse below. His parents, who fled the pogroms, keep him hidden, even after moving to Porto Alegre. An isolated adolescent, at odds with his desires and his difference, he ends up running away and joins a circus, where the public takes him for a man in disguise. Later, he meets Tita, a female centaur raised apart in the countryside.
Context
The novel was published in 1980 and won the prize of the São Paulo Association of Art Critics the same year. Its Brazilian publisher sees in it a mixture of historical novel, fantasy, biblical parable and satire, which questions Jewish identity, the feeling of being a foreigner and a Brazilian middle class under the military regime. The narrative follows Guedali's life from his birth to adulthood. It was translated into English in 1985 by Margaret A. Neves, and into French as early as 1985.
Who it is for
A short, very humorous novel; three French editions have appeared, the latest translated by Philippe Poncet in 2011.
Prizes and reception
Chosen in 2002 by the National Yiddish Book Center among the hundred best books of Jewish theme of the last two centuries.
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