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In search of the man who defined Brazil musically
MICHAL BONCZA recommends a book that explores imaginatively the disappearance of Francisco Tenorio Cerqueira, the famed precursor of Brazil’s contemporary popular music
JAN WOOLF wallows in the historical mulch of post WW2 West Germany, and the resistant, challenging sense made of it by Anselm Kiefer
ANA ISABEL NUNES points to the empowering legacy of Augusto Boal’s Theatre Of The Oppressed
CARLOS MARTINEZ welcomes the publication of the writings of the great Palestinian author, political theorist and spokesman for the PFLP
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE review Cottontail, Memoir of a Snail, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, and Captain America: Brave New World
PAUL DONOVAN is fascinated by an account of the long history of Catholic Church’s involvement in espionage
ROGER McKENZIE welcomes an important contribution to the history of Africa, telling the story in its own right rather than in relation to Europeans
They Shot The Piano Player
Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal, SelfMadeHero, £29.99
ON MARCH 18 1976 one of Brazil’s most innovative musicians of the time, Francisco Tenorio Cerqueira, aka Tenorio Jr, played a concert with Vinicius de Moraes and Toquinho at the Gran Rex in Buenos Aires. He returned to his hotel and his companion, and shortly after 3am the 34-year-old left to buy a sandwich. He was never heard of or seen again.
Argentina was a dangerous place at the time, convulsed by extrajudicial kidnapping and murder instigated against all manner of social activists by a ruthless military junta.
By borrowing from the title of Francois Truffaut’s 1960 film Shoot The Piano Player (The Truffaut films Jules and Jim and The 400 Blows were very popular in Brazil) the authors set the tone for a noir-ish investigation.
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