Moacyr Scliar

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Moacyr Scliar
Moacyr Scliar
Born	March 23, 1937 Porto Alegre, Brazil
Occupation	Author, physician

Moacyr Jaime Scliar (born March 23, 1937) is a Brazilian writer and physician.

He was born in Porto Alegre, in the State of Rio Grande do Sul, and graduated in Medicine in 1962, majoring in Public Health. In 1962, his first book Stories of a Doctor in Formation was published, although, later on, he regretted having published it so young.

In 1968, six years later, his second book The Carnival of the Animals was published, and he has since published many more.

He is currently one of Brazil’s most distinguished writers. Most of his writing centers on issues of Jewish identity in the Diaspora and particularly on being Jewish in Brazil. In a recent autobiographical piece, Scliar discusses his membership in the Jewish, medical, Gaucho, and Brazilian tribes. He was elected a life-time member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters in 2003. His novel The Centaur in the Garden was included among the 100 Greatest Works of Modern Jewish Literature by The National Yiddish Book Center.

Scliar is also known for his book Max and the Cats (Max e os Felinos), whose premise was admittedly taken by Yann Martel for his own book Life of Pi, winner of The Booker Prize in 2002, but he never pressed charges against the Canadian writer.

[edit] Works in English

• The Centaur in the Garden
• The Gods of Raquel
• The Carnival of the Animals
• The Ballad of the False Messiah
• The Strange Nation of Rafael Mendes
• The Volunteers
• The Enigmatic Eye
• Max and the Cats
• The Collected Stories of Moacyr Scliar