Ana Maria Gonçalves’s novel sold 5,000 copies in 15 days, 4 times more than in the month before her election for the Brazilian Academy of Letters
The book “A color defect”by Ana Maria Gonçalves, recorded 5,000 copies sold in the first half of July 2025. The volume represents 4 times more than sales of the previous month. The work, which is among the longest novels of national literature, with 951 pages, gained new commercial impetus after the author’s election to the ABL (Brazilian Academy of Letters).
Ana Maria Gonçalves went to Chair No. 33 and, after 1 century of the creation of the GLA, is the 1st black woman to become immortal. It also becomes the youngest member of the current Immortals. The chair had been vague since May 22, after the death of the grammarian Evanildo Bechara at the age of 97.
In the first 24 hours after the announcement of the entry of Gonçalves at GLA, 2,000 copies of the book were marketed. Since its launch in 2006, the work has accumulated over 180,000 copies sold in the Brazilian editorial market, reaching the 41st edition. Of the total sales registered in the last 19 years, 80,000 have occurred after the book was chosen as the samba-plot theme of the Portela samba school in 2024.
The work was written for 5 years, 2 in research, 1 in the original newsroom and 2 more in the rewritten. Set throughout the nineteenth century, the plot follows Kehinde’s trajectory (pronounced Queindé), an African enslaved in Bahia who, after a series of adversities, conquers freedom and becomes a businesswoman.
“A color defect” won the Casa de Las Américas Award (2007), was elected the best book in Brazilian literature of the 21st century by jury of S.Paulo Folha and inspired the samba-plot of the carnival of 2024.
