A searing indictment of racism and privilege in Brazil, and an uncompromising challenge to the country's idealised view of itself as a racial democracy.” —Ángel Gurría-Quintana, Financial Times
“Phenotypes demonstrates how the traumas of growing up in a racist society can propel a person of color forward while never letting them escape their past.” —Southwest Review
“Phenotypes underscores how difficult antiracist projects can be at any scale…Scott’s characters quickly abandon the possibility of a comprehensive solution in favor of stopgap measures that may or may not work. Such are the inadequacies, the novel asserts, of treating entrenched and systemic issues as if they are only skin-deep.” —New York Times Book Review
“This is an artfully plotted tale about race, privilege and guilt…Phenotypes educates and entertains in equal measure.” —The Observer
“Phenotypes is…brilliant and emotionally resonant. I put it down days ago, and I'm still walking around with it.” —Star Tribune
“A compelling exploration of the fraught reality of race relations in Brazil . . . there is much that English-speaking readers stand to gain from the considered, quiet fury of Paulo Scott’s novel, not least the expansion of and challenge to modern-day discourses on race.” —Times Literary Supplement
“Phenotypes is a complex, stream-of-consciousness novel about race, culture, and deciding for oneself where one belongs.” —Foreword Reviews
“[A] profound story of colorism and familial loyalty set in Brazil…The multiple layers combine for a mesmerizing and mature story.” —Publishers Weekly starred review
“Scott pours out his indictment of Brazil in long, overflowing sentences that are equal parts outrage and cutting humor. Originally titled Brown and Yellow when it was published in Portuguese…it is not easy to shake off.” Kirkus Review
“A blistering examination of Brazil's fraught racial history told through two brothers, one light-skinned and one dark-skinned.” —Katie Goh, i-D (Books to Read 2022)
“Federico, the white-passing mixed-race narrator of Paulo Scott’s stirring new novel Phenotypes, grips you from his opening words, and what a story he has to tell. Ostensibly sending up a Brazilian governmental bureaucracy’s attempts to address problems with the racial quota system in its higher education, Scott quickly shows that he has penned a profound, coruscating exploration of race, racism, colorism, family dynamics, class, culture, regionalism, politics, radicalism, and so much more. Scott’s intricate, ironic, entrancing narration, skillfully rendered into English by Daniel Hahn, confirms Scott as one of Brazil’s finest contemporary writers.” —John Keene
“Scott seems to have managed to produce a novel that will survive the test of time, a profound interpretation of our time and our country.” —Folha de São Paulo
"[Phenotypes’] deftly engaging plot . . . twists and turns while exploring race, brotherhood, privilege, and the lasting impact of guilt. Hahn’s translation is exemplary, and although this is not an easy read, it is a journey worth taking." —Joshua Rees, Buzz
“Phenotypes is innovative, deftly precise in its form, and utterly profound in its content. Scott’s work in bringing contemporary urgencies into fiction is uncomfortable and often unsettling, but necessary—and, ultimately, unforgettable.” —Rachel Farmer, Asymptote
Praise for Paulo Scott
“A powerful, complex and very ambitious voice. In the contemporary Latin American literature scene, Paulo Scott is a must-read.” —Juan Pablo Villalobos
2021-10-27
A prominent, light-skinned consultant from a mixed Brazilian family confronts and is consumed by the "uncontrollable shame" of racism in his country.
Even though his father, a renowned police forensics expert, is Black, Federico grew up in the southern town of Porto Alegre not knowing what it meant to be "part of the race": "Blackness did not exist in my upbringing." Increasingly guilty over his ability to pass as White, he has stopped straightening his hair and dedicated himself to Black causes. Drafted onto a government commission looking at affirmative action policies for universities in the wake of violent student protests over racial quotas, Federico is stunned by the commission's support for a software program that will determine whether an applicant is sufficiently Black, brown, or Indigenous. "It had to be a joke," he scoffs. But it isn't, and neither are proposals to employ facial recognition technology, a national register on which a person's racial "qualifications" are recorded, and the "hierarchisation" of skin tones. Also no joke is the arrest of Federico's rebellious niece at a student protest over quotas, where she was found carrying a gun—a police service revolver that her father and uncle had frantically hidden years ago following a shooting to which they had an unfortunate connection. A former lawyer and activist, Scott pours out his indictment of Brazil in long, overflowing sentences that are equal parts outrage and cutting humor. Originally titled Brown and Yellow when it was published in Portuguese, the book is a bit sidetracked by a romantic involvement and other nonessential plot, but even so, it is not easy to shake off.
A blast of righteous (and spot-on) indignation by a formidable Brazilian author.
