Erico Verissimo: a Brazilian “painter” of Israel

Abstract

The Brazilian writer Erico Verissimo traveled to Israel with his wife in April 1966, invited by Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The notes made by Verissimo during the route through the major israeli cities were turned into the book Israel in April, written and published three years after the trip. The writer sent to his publisher, along with the handwriting of the opus, a letter in which he showed that his intention when he began writing the book “was ‘to paint’ Israel with the playful carefree joy of an artist on vacation”. However, during the work, he realized that he was making “dangerous questions” like “Who are the Jews? A race? A people? An entirety of tribes connected by a common religion?” Then Verissimo let the common sense prevail and went back to his “painting”. In this paper we intend to study the book Israel in April, analyzing how the writer’s carefree view mixes together with the critical eye of the intellectual when reporting his impressions in Israel.