Price: $9.00 CDN
July 2024
PDF File
Spot colour on 21 illustrated pages
Young adult novel
Recommended for readers 14 years+
Ana Pessoa is a Lisbon-born Portuguese writer and translator living in Brussels. She’s an author of children and young adult books, all of them published by Planeta Tangerina (winner of the 2012 Bologna Prize for Best Children’s Publisher in Europe). Her books are published in Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Serbia, Chile and the Netherlands and have received several awards by institutions like FNLIJ (Brazil), Banco del Libro (Venezuela), Fundación Cuatrogatos (USA), International Youth Library (Germany), among others. Mary John is the first of her books to be translated into English.
Illustrator and author Bernardo P. Carvalho co-founded Planeta Tangerina, a children’s book publisher, in 1999. Over the years, he has received a variety of prizes and recognitions for his books and illustrations, including the Opera Prima and Non-fiction Awards at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, the Portuguese National Illustration Award and the Gustav Heinemann Peace Prize. His work has been published worldwide.
Rahul Bery translates from Portuguese and Spanish to English, and is based in Cardiff, Wales. His latest book translations are Mary John by Ana Pessoa and Kokoschka’s Doll by Afonso Cruz. His debut translation, Rolling Fields by David Trueba, was nominated for the 2021 Translators’ Association First Translation Prize. His work has appeared in Granta, The White Review, Words Without Borders, Partisan Hotel, the TLS and elsewhere. He was the British Library’s translator in residence from 2018-2019 and he does outreach work with the Stephen Spender Trust and the Translation Exchange at Queen’s College, Oxford University.
Daniel Hahn is a writer, editor and translator with over eighty books to his name. His translations (from Portuguese, Spanish and French) include fiction from Europe, Africa and the Americas and non-fiction by writers ranging from Portuguese Nobel laureate José Saramago to Brazilian footballer Pelé. Recent books include the new Oxford Companion to Children’s Literature and Catching Fire: A Translation Diary. He is a former chair of the Society of Authors and is presently on the board of a number of organisations that deal with literature, literacy, translation and free expression. In 2020 Daniel was made an OBE for his services to literature.
Praise for Mary John:
“In a letter to her childhood friend Julio, Mary John reflects on their friendship in the light of the painful transition through puberty, when she feels dismissed and mocked for her innocence, and through to moving away and forming new friendships. With candid warmth and a confiding tone, she writes the ups and downs, anger, humour, frustration and pleasures of adolescent girlhood.”
~ Deirdre Baker, The Toronto Star
“The beauty of the story is that the themes of coming-of-age and finding your identity are universal so the novel could be set in any country and in any era. Aside from a few mentions of Portuguese culture and traditions, Mary John is really a global and timeless story. Illustrations by Bernardo P. Carvalho on the cover and inside the book are dark blue and white, perhaps indicating the fact that the main character is sometimes described as ‘melancholy’. The illustrations are in the style of a comic book and add both information and emotion to the story. Mary John is about childhood, first love, maturing, and finding your way in the world, and Pessoa’s novel is one that will ring true with readers of either gender. It will mirror events in the lives of young adult readers, and older readers will see their younger selves in its pages. Highly recommended.” ~ Ann Ketcheson, CM: Canadian Review of Materials
“Often funny and heartwarming, this young adult fiction book about family, friends, and love features interesting characters and entertaining dialogue along with 21 pages of illustrations by Bernardo P. Carvalho. Highly recommended!” ~ Glenn Perrett, Metroland Media
“Ana Pessoa encloses all the echoes of this discovery process [of being a teenager] within a rich, flexible prose that breathes adventure — while sticking to a genuine tone, with believable dialogues that are accessible to their target audience. (…) It is also recommended for adults, whether as a way to return to their own youth or simply as a literary fulfilment.” ~ José Mário Silva, Expresso
