Geovani Martins was born in 1991 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He is the author of The Sun on My Head, named one of the Best Brazilian Books of the Century by Folha de São Paulo. He grew up with his mother in the Rio neighborhood of Vidigal. He supported his writing by working as a sandwich- board man and selling drinks on the beach, and was discovered during creative writing workshops at FLUP, the literary festival of the Rio favelas. Via Ápia is his first novel.

Julia Sanches translates works from Portuguese, Spanish, and Catalan. Her translations include Slash and Burn by Claudia Hernández, for which she won a PEN/Heim Award, as well as works by Noemi Jaffe, Daniel Galera, and Geovani Martins. She is a founding member of the Cedilla & Co. translators' collective, and she lives in Providence, Rhode Island.

"Brilliant. . . To read Via Ápia is to experience the rush of emotion that comes with encountering a story for the first time and feeling a deep sense of recognition, like it's been there all along."
--Willem Marx, Electric Literature

"Through a focus on the local conditions, Martins indicts a country that treats its poor and Black citizens as a problem to be resolved by brutal 'pacification, ' while still celebrating the lively, joyful pulse of life in Rocinha."
--Anna Mebel, Asymptote Journal

"Geovani Martins has written a funny, tender, kinetic, often brutal debut novel. Via Ápia cracks open a favela--built on a hill whose slope suggests both aspiration and danger--revealing a teeming, vivid motion that can only be found by observing real life without pity or fear. Martins's eye is sharp, his ear true. Julia Sanches's translation is hip and contemporary. This book is the beginning of something big."
--Vinson Cunningham, author of Great Expectations

"Via Ápia is absolutely alive with the rhythm of Rio, of youth, of community. With an incredible dexterity, Martins flows between characters who together make a wonderous novel of great heart and ambition."
―Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, author of Chain-Gang All-Stars

"Vivid, electric, and so immersive you'll catch a contact high, Via Ápia pulls you into the wild world of Rocinha, the largest favela in Latin America, and never lets go. A celebration of life and all the beauty and pain that comes with it, Geovani Martins has transformed the novel into a portal to new sights, sensations, sounds, smells, and tastes--all of which initially seem foreign but are more familiar than we know. From alleyway confrontations to bumping bailes, Martins masterfully highlights the heart-wrenching conflict of a changing home full of people who are forced to change with it. An inner-city epic that will echo through the ages."
--Mateo Askaripour, author of This Great Hemisphere

"This is a war novel like no other, an unflinching portrayal of the militarized police occupation and 'clean-up' of Rio de Janeiro's Rocinha. And Julia Sanches handles afro-brasilidade, class, and favela slang with so much care and brilliance. I don't know how she did it. Her translation is sheer sorcery."
--Bruna Dantas Lobato, winner of the National Book Award for Translated Literature and author of Blue Light Hours

"Geovani Martins documents the marvelous beauty and tragedy of lives on the periphery of Rio de Janeiro with the humor, perspicacity, and expansive detail of Machado de Assis. But check it: the thumping boiling heart of this book is the sick-ass incisive malandra narrative voice brought to crackling life by Julia Sanches's wonderful translation. Via Ápia is about carving out a space for joy, love, and friendship in a death-haunted dangerous place. Martins imbues every corner of this book with grace and light; it's that dazzling quality that cements Via Ápia as a contemporary Brazilian classic."
--Harold Rogers, author of Tropicália

"Readers will have a tough time putting this one down."
--Publishers Weekly