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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
A death in Brazil and its sources, 7 Sep 2004
I have also researched one of the subjects with which A Death in Brazil deals, namely the election, government and impeachment of Fernando Collor, the former President of Brazil. From 1991 to 1997, I was managing editor at Veja, the magazine with the widest circulation in Brazil, which played an influential role in bringing about Collor's impeachment. In 1992, I received the Editor of the Year Award from the World Press Review for Veja's coverage during the period. At the end of 1999, after almost two years of full-time writing, I finished my 720-page book on the subject, entitled Notícias do Planalto: A imprensa e Fernando Collor (News From the Planalto: The press and Fernando Collor). In writing the book I interviewed 140 people and read more than a hundred books. Notícias do Planalto was a bestseller in Brazil, selling more than 80,000 copies. Peter Robb invited me to lunch in Rio de Janeiro at the beginning of 2001. Robb praised Notícias do Planalto and told me of his plans to write a book about Brazil, Fernando Collor and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. I recommended that he read certain books and gave him phone numbers for both Collor and Lula da Silva. I never heard from him again. When I read A Death in Brazil I was rather shocked. There were nineteen passages in Robb's book that were startlingly similar to passages in Notícias do Planalto. What we are dealing with here is not simply use of information, as is normal in intellectual work. The fact is that entire sentences, lines of reasoning and images recur with only a few words changed. I have prepared translated transcripts of the passages in question from Notícias do Planalto and the corresponding passages from A Death in Brazil. Robb mentions my book only once. On page 313, in the section "Sources and Readings", he says that Notícias do Planalto is a "very fluid and complete account of Fernando's fast rise and faster fall as seen by the journalists of Brazilian press and television, not least of whom [is] the author". This mention in no way justifies the use Peter Robb seems to have made of my book. One wonders if he would have used my book so freely had it been published in English.
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