A worldwide classic of children's literature — a moving, life-affirming childhood story, finally available in English again

Meet Zezé — Brazil’s naughtiest and most loveable boy, his talent for mischief matched only by his great kindness. When he grows up he wants to be a ‘poet with a bow-tie’ but for now he entertains himself playing pranks on the residents of his family’s poor Rio de Janeiro neighbourhood and inventing friends to play with. That is, until he meets a real friend, and his life begins to change…

My Sweet Orange Tree is a worldwide classic of children’s literature — never out of print in Brazil since it was first published in 1968, it has also been translated into an astonishing number of languages and won the hearts of millions of young readers from Korea to turkey, Poland to Thailand and in many other countries too.

José Mauro de Vasconcelos (1920–84) was a Brazilian writer who worked as a sparring partner for boxers, a labourer on a banana farm, and a fisherman before he started writing at the age of 22. He is most famous for his autobiographical novel My Sweet Orange Tree, which tells the story of his own childhood in Rio de Janeiro.

Book shelf