Conrad Detrez

Conrad Detrez grew up in a small village in the Belgian countryside. In 1962 he travelled to Brazil as a lay missionary. He first stayed in Volta Redonda and from 1963 in Rio de Janeiro. He was a university teacher while at the same time working in the favelas. He discovered his homosexuality and gradually became involved in the resistance to the military dictatorship that was installed in 1964 in Brazil. After being arrested and expelled from Rio de Janeiro in 1967, Detrez stayed some months in Paris, participating in the revolt of May 68. He returned to São Paulo where he became a journalist. In 1969 he secretly met and interviewed Brazilian guerrilla leader Carlos Marighella. In the 1970s Detrez stayed in Algeria (as a teacher) and in Lisbon (as a radio journalist) after the Portuguese Carnation Revolution. Before his writing career Detrez translated books by the Brazilian writers Jorge Amado and Antonio Callado. In 1978 he won the Prix Renaudot for his autobiographical novel L'Herbe à brûler. In 1982 Detrez became a diplomat for the French government in Nicaragua. He died of AIDS.

• Carlos Marighella, Conrad Detrez, Pour la liberation du Bresil Aubier-Montaigne, 1970. • Márcio Moreira Alves, Conrad Detrez, Carlos Marighella, Zerschlagt die Wohlstandsinseln der Dritten Welt, Rowohlt, 1971. • Les pâtres de la nuit: roman, Stock, 1975. • L'herbe à brûler: roman, 1977; Labor, 2003. • A Weed for Burning, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1984. (translated by Lydia Davis) • Caballero ou l'irrésistible corps de l'homme-dieu, Galerie Jade, 1980. • La lutte finale, Balland, 1980; Balland, 1996. • Le dragueur de Dieu: roman, Calmann-Lévy, 1980. • Les Noms de la tribu, Seuil, 1981 • Le mâle apôtre: poèmes, Persona, 1982 • La guerre blanche: roman, Calmann-Lévy, 1982. • La ceinture de feu: roman, Gallimard, 1984. • Zone of Fire, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1986. (translated by Lydia Davis) • La mélancolie du voyeur, Denoël, 1986. • Ludo: roman, Labor, 1988. • Les plumes du coq, Actes sud, 1995.

Conrad Detrez is recorded with the occupation journalist. Recorded at birth as Conrad Jean Walthère Alphonse Ghislain Arthur Detrez. Recorded as writer, poet and journalist.

• Peter Daerden, Revolutie in Rio. Conrad Detrez tussen God en guerilla, samba en saudade. Tzara, 2023.