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Portrait of Rubem Fonseca Photo: Hector Guerrero/AFP via Getty Images (2003)

Sample of authors

Fonseca, Rubem

Brazilian author, born in Juiz de Fora in Minas Gerais, but at the age of 7 moved to Rio de Janeiro. Fonseca gained a degree in Law at Rio de Janeiro’s federal university, UFRJ (Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro). In 1952 he started a career in the police service, first as a patrolling police officer, advancing quickly in rank to eventually become police commissioner, one of the highest p...

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Literary figures

Boysie (Brian) Oakes

Gender: Male

He is recruited as a spy by mistake, and is regarded as tough, ruthless and bloodthirsty. In actual fact, he is an easy-going, forgetful and cowardly mummy’s boy, who hires gangsters to carry out the acts of violence he is ordered to do. This doesn’t prevent Brian ‘Boysie’ Oakes from making a career. It is simplest to describe him as a parody of James Bond, and John Gardner has written a suite of...

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