The Prophet and Other Stories

Samuel Rawet was born in the Polish shtetl of Klimontów and immigrated with his family to Brazil in 1936. Rawet grew up in Zona de Leopoldina, a suburb of Rio de Janeiro, the city that later became the setting for much of his literary work. He completed his engineering degree in 1943 at the University of Brazil and went on to build Brasília. He was a poet, playwright, novelist, and essayist. He gave an important early voice to Brazilian Jews, expressing the frustrations of exile and the immigrant experience. He wrote about marginalized groups: Jews, homosexuals, and suburbanites. He was a member of the Café da Manhã group, contributor to Revista Branca, and, in 1965, became a member of the Brazilian Associação Nacional de Escritores.