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The 2024 issue of Absinthe: World Literature in Translation is a celebration of contemporary Brazilian literature, including short fiction and poetry, as well as excerpts from novels and sections from a recently published—but never produced—cinema novo screenplay.

Absinthe 30: Brazil with an ‘S' features English-language translations of work by several acclaimed Brazilian writers, including the likes of Caio Fernando Abreu, Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, Maria Valéria Rezende, and Clarah Averbuck, as well as that of more emergent voices in the Brazilian literary scene, such as Natalia Timerman, Natércia Pontes, and Maria Esther Maciel, among others. Each contribution follows a critical reflection written by its translator, and many of the contributions are accompanied by an original illustration by São Paulo-based artist Thereza Nardelli. 

Guest-edited by Júlia Irion Martins, Absinthe 30 sheds light on Brazil’s regional diversity, presenting an image of Brazil beyond samba and soccer. The contents of this issue run the gamut, from deals with the capital-D Devil to encounters with lowercase-d devils on dating apps, from reflections on everyday malaise and COVID-era anxieties to snapshots of life during the AIDS crisis. The issue broadly confronts questions of belonging, mourning, family, gender, and sexuality, with many of its pieces—written between the early-20th century and as recently as 2024—demonstrating a preoccupation with formal experimentation, genre, and literary style.

In this expert insider’s account of the savings and loan debacle of the 1980s, William Black lays bare the strategies that corrupt CEOs and CFOs—in collusion with those who have regulatory oversight of their industries—use to defraud companies for their personal gain. Recounting the investigations he conducted as Director of Litigation for the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, Black fully reveals how Charles Keating and hundreds of other S&L owners took advantage of a weak regulatory environment to perpetrate accounting fraud on a massive scale. In the new afterword, he also authoritatively links the S&L crash to the business failures of 2008 and beyond, showing how CEOs then and now are using the same tactics to defeat regulatory restraints and commit the same types of destructive fraud.

Black uses the latest advances in criminology and economics to develop a theory of why “control fraud”—looting a company for personal profit—tends to occur in waves that make financial markets deeply inefficient. He also explains how to prevent such waves. Throughout the book, Black drives home the larger point that control fraud is a major, ongoing threat in business that requires active, independent regulators to contain it. His book is a wake-up call for everyone who believes that market forces alone will keep companies and their owners honest.