On Tuesday, February 28, at 7:00pm, please join Andrew Solomon and Luiz Schwarcz at McNally Jackson Books Seaport for a discussion of Schwarcz’s new book, The Absent Moon: A Memoir of a Short Childhood and a Long Depression.
When Luiz Schwarcz was a child, he was told little about his grandfather and namesake, Láios—“Luiz” in Hungarian. Only later in life did he learn that Láios, a devout Hungarian Jew, had defied his country’s Nazi occupiers by holding secret religious services in his home. After being put on a train to a German death camp with his son André, Láios ordered André to leap from the train to freedom at a rail crossing, while Láios himself was carried on to his death. What Luiz did know was that his father, who had subsequently emigrated to Brazil, was an unhappy and silent man. Young Luiz assumed responsibility for his parents’ comfort, as many children of trauma do, and for a time he seemed to be succeeding: he blossomed into the family prodigy, eventually growing into a groundbreaking literary publisher in São Paulo. He found a home in the family silence—a home that he filled with books and with reading. But then, at a high point of outward success, Luiz was brought low by a devastating breakdown. The Absent Moon is the story of his journey to that point and of his journey back from it, as Luiz learned to forge a more honest relationship with his own mind, with his family, and with their shared past.
Luiz Schwarcz was born in São Paulo, Brazil, in 1956. He began his career as an editor at Brasiliense and later founded Companhia das Letras, in 1986. In 2017, he received the London Book Fair Lifetime Achievement Award. He is the author of the children’s books Minha vida de goleiro (1999) and Em busca do Thesouro da Juventude (2003), and the short story collections Discurso sobre o capim (2005) and Linguagem de sinais (2010).
Admission is $5.00, to be refunded the evening of the event as a voucher that can be used in the store, bar or café (or upon cancellation of the reservation up to 24 hours before the event). For more information, and to reserve a seat and/or a copy of the book, please visit McNally Jackson Books Seaport.
