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A Brazilian Noir Writer Investigates Her Biggest Crime Yet

By Alejandra Oliva

Femicide—the killing of women—is the subject of Patrícia Melo’s experimental novel, set on the edge of the Brazilian rainforest.

This article is adapted from AQ's special report on Latin America’s election super-cycle The unnamed attorney at the heart of Patrícia Melo’s novel The Simple Art of Killing a Woman is haunted by one of Latin America’s biggest scourges: gender-based violence. When her job sends her to Acre, a state in Brazil tucked between the borders of Peru and Bolivia, to document the trials of those accused of killing women, she uses the trip as an opportunity to escape her own suddenly violent boyfriend, and to understand her own history: Her father killed her mother when she was just a...

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