Pedro and Marques Take Stock

Falero makes his English-language debut with a vivid portrayal of poverty and the drug trade in the favelas of Porto Alegre, Brazil. It’s 2009, and Pedro and Marques are both stock clerks at a branch of Fênix, a regional supermarket chain, who dream of a better life. When Pedro overhears a neighborhood kid complain about how hard it is to get weed, he decides to start dealing, and invites Marques to join him. With baby number two on the way, and profoundly moved by Pedro’s speeches about how exploited they are as employees (“You really think we work less than the dude who owns this chain?”), Marques agrees. After violence spikes between rival cartels, Pedro manages to broker a peace deal and keep the black market profitable for everyone. With business booming, Pedro spends his money extravagantly (“He had years and years of poverty to make up for,”) and has trouble getting back to the straight and narrow. Falero describes the logistics of the drug trade in minute detail, to the point of sometimes bogging down the narrative. Still, his characters’ yearnings feel palpable, as do the forces limiting their chances for success. A gritty portrait of life on the margins emerges from this well-wrought narrative. Agent: Marina Penalva, Casanovas & Lynch. (Nov.)