Moacyr Scliar
Born	Moacyr Jaime Scliar March 23, 1937 Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul
Died	February 27, 2011(2011-02-27) (aged 73) Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul
Occupation(s)	Writer, physician
Notable work	Max and the Cats

Moacyr Jaime Scliar (March 23, 1937 – February 27, 2011) was a Brazilian writer and physician. Most of his writing centers on issues of Jewish identity in the Diaspora and particularly on being Jewish in Brazil.

Scliar is best known outside Brazil for his 1981 novel Max and the Cats (Max e os Felinos), the story of a young German^[1] man who flees Berlin after he comes to the attention of the Nazis for having had an affair with a married woman. En route to Brazil, his ship sinks, and he finds himself alone in a dinghy with a jaguar who had been travelling in the hold.^[2]

Background

Scliar was born in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, into a Jewish family that immigrated to Brazil from Bessarabia in 1919. He graduated in medicine in 1962, majoring in public health. He first worked at the Jewish Hospital for the Elderly in Porto Alegre, and later worked in the public health field in tuberculosis prevention and treatment.^[1]

Writing

A prolific writer, Scliar published over 100 books in Portuguese, covering various literary genres: short stories; novels; young adult fiction; children's books; and essays.

In 1962, his first book Stories of a Doctor in Training was published, although later on he regretted having published it so young. His second book The Carnival of the Animals was published in 1968.

In a recent autobiographical piece, Scliar discusses his membership of the Jewish, medical, Gaucho, and Brazilian tribes. His novel The Centaur in the Garden was included among the 100 Greatest Works of Modern Jewish Literature by The National Yiddish Book Center. In an interview with Judith Bolton-Fasman published in The Jewish Reader, August 2003, Scliar commented on his use of the centaur as a metaphor: "The centaur is a symbol of the double identity, characteristic of Jews in a country like Brazil. At home, you speak Yiddish, eat gefilte fish, and celebrate Shabbat. But in the streets, you have soccer, samba, and Portuguese. After a while you feel like a centaur."

Translations

Scliar's fiction has been translated into English, Dutch, French, Swedish, German, Spanish, Italian, Hebrew, Czech, Serbian, Georgian, Slovene and Danish. His translated fiction is listed in the UNESCO international bibliography of translations.

Awards and recognitions

• 2003 — Elected a lifetime member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters.
• 2009 São Paulo Prize for Literature — Shortlisted in the Best Book of the Year category for Manual da Paixão Solitária^[3]
• 2010 São Paulo Prize for Literature — Chosen to serve as a member of the Final Jury^[4]

Works in English

Works in Portuguese

References

Bibliography

• Florina Florescu, "Of Genes, Mutations, and Desires in Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis and Moacyr Scliar's The Centaur in the Garden Catalina", in Elizabeth Klaver (ed.), The Body in Medical Culture (Albany (NY), SUNY Press, 2010).