Exemplary Humans

JULIANA LEITE MAKES HER ENGLISH-LANGUAGE DEBUT WITH A NOVEL ABOUT ONE WOMAN’S PAST AND ALL OF OUR FUTURES

Ever since the unnamed threat took over, 100-year-old Natália has been stuck inside her Rio de Janeiro apartment, alone. Well, not entirely alone—her loved ones may be gone but they never really left her, plus she’s pretty sure there’s a spy watching her every move through the window.

As she waits for the daily call from her daughter who lives halfway across the world, the old woman revisits scenes from her life. There’s her husband Vicente who obsessively erased maps of Brazil; her best friend Sarah, the cookie seller; Jorge who gave tarot readings for both humans and birds; and the comrades who joined her in resisting Brazil’s dictatorship, at least until they were forced into hiding. Exemplary Humans is an ambitious novel about the quirks of memory and the delights and horror of aging.

Author Biography

Juliana Leite was born in 1983, in Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro. Her debut novel, Entre as mãos (2018), won the Sesc and APCA awards, was shortlisted for the Jabuti, São Paulo, and Rio literature awards, and long listed for the Oceano award, as well as being published in French and having its rights optioned for film. Her short story “My Good Friend” (tr. Zoë Perry) was published in the Paris Review and was awarded a 2024 O. Henry Award.