I believe that "Barren Lives" could never be fully understood by any foreigner. I mean foreigner as someone who has not lived and grown up in Brazil. "Barren Lives" deals with the essence of human souls, when there is nothing left to believe in, nothing left to look foward to, nothing to relish, nothing to praise, when it all comes down not to being humans, as we're not, but to being animals. It sounds and looks very deep and poetic, but the strenght of this novel comes from its veracity. It is a a story that has happened to several families of people in Brasil. It doesn't make us, readers, wonder about our fragility or our values. It wants to sting us with the indignation of living our mediocre lives. It exposes human mediocrity. Far beyond social critic, it is a social attack. Ramos is dry: he saves up words, writing solely what's essential. He would condense it even more, to short sentences, litlle phrases, single words. He wouldn't even write, if he had the chance. A real genius of literature who has captured sentiments with completely detachment, subverting his own magistral reasoning. A book that MUST be read, although I couldn't trust an English version of it