The Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva approved the law that will declare 2024 as the ‘National Year of Fernando Sabino’. The aim is to celebrate and recognize the significant contribution of the author to Brazilian literature on the centenary of his birth. He would have turned 100 years old on October 12 of last year.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of Sabino’s death, who was born in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais. He passed away after a long battle with cancer on October 11, 2004, one day before turning 81 years old.Who was Fernando Sabino?
Fernando Sabino was a Brazilian writer and journalist. He was born in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, where he lived until he was twenty, when he moved to Rio de Janeiro.
Sabino was the author of 50 books, in addition to many chronicles and essays. His first book was published in 1941, when he was just 18 years old. Sabino gained national and international fame in 1956 with the novel ‘O Encontro Marcado’, the story of three friends in the interior city of Belo Horizonte. The book was inspired by Sabino’s own life story.
Sabino also achieved commercial success with ‘O Grande Mentecapto’ and ‘O Homem Nu’, which were adapted for cinema.
Sabino considered friendship one of the most important things in life. His circle of friends included very well-known names in Brazil, such as Hélio Pellegrino, Otto Lara Resende, Paulo Mendes Campos, Rubem Braga, Clarice Lispector, Vinícius de Moraes, Carlos Drummond de Andrade, Mário de Andrade, and Manuel Bandeira.
In the last ten years of his life, Sabino distanced himself from the media. Many of his close friends died before him. Two years before his death, Sabino was diagnosed with cancer. After a prolonged illness, he passed away one day before turning 81 years old at his home in Rio de Janeiro.Source: TV Bric, Agência Brasil and Good Reads