Milton Hatoum

Milton Hatoum is a Brazilian novelist, short-story writer, essayist, translator, professor, and architect, and one of the major voices in contemporary Brazilian literature. Born in Manaus, Amazonas, in 1952, into a family of Lebanese descent, Hatoum moved to Brasília as a teenager and later studied architecture at the University of São Paulo. He also lived in Spain and France and taught literature and architecture in Brazil and abroad, including at the Federal University of Amazonas, the Sorbonne, and the University of California, Berkeley. He made his literary debut with Relato de um Certo Oriente in 1989, which won the Jabuti Prize for best novel. His later novels Dois Irmãos and Cinzas do Norte further established his reputation, with the latter receiving several major Brazilian literary awards. His fiction frequently explores memory, family conflict, migration, exile, identity, political violence, and the cultural intersections between the Amazon and immigrant communities. Among his major works are Relato de um Certo Oriente, Dois Irmãos, Cinzas do Norte, Órfãos do Eldorado, A Cidade Ilhada, and the trilogy O Lugar Mais Sombrio, composed of A Noite da Espera, Pontos de Fuga, and Dança de Enganos. Hatoum’s work has been published internationally and adapted for television, theater, comics, and cinema. In 2018, he received the Roger Caillois Prize in France. He was elected to the Brazilian Academy of Letters in 2025 and took his seat in 2026, becoming the first writer born in Amazonas to join the institution.