GRUPO Amanuense - THE SWALLOWERS OF BEAUTIFUL THINGS

Edua

I lu s

rdo

t r ato

H

r: ma a l fo n rĂ­a l av e z zi

translated by Lawrence Schimel

One day, in the living room of their home, Roco and Luca saw a flower pot with two large, round sunflowers.

“They’re so beautiful, they look like two suns with hair and beards,” said Roco, the older brother.

“They’re so beautiful, they look like two fried eggs,” said Luca, the younger brother.

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The two sunflowers were so beautiful that Roco and Luca had no other choice than to open their mouths wide, very wide, as wide as possible.

nd

ea

o ch

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e f th

all w s m

owed an entire sunflo

wer

.

Excited, they ran out of their house.

Outside, on the grass in the garden, there was a long and shiny orange hose.

“It’s so beautiful, it looks like a river of fire,” said Luca, stopped at the other end.

“It’s so beautiful, it looks like a sleeping dragon snake,” said Roco, stopped at one end.

And together, they swallowed up the entire long, shiny orange hose.

On one side of the street they saw some light posts, already lit up.

“They’re so beautiful, they look like very skinny giants with their heads bowed down,” Roco said.

“They’re so beautiful they look like soldiers all in a row,” Luca said.

And leaping very high all along the street, Roco and Luca swallowed all the light posts.

They came to a small blue lagoon.

“It’s so beautiful, it seems like a great mug full of soup,” Roco said.

“It’s so beautiful, it looks like a deflated sky,” Luca said.

And

each o

f them swallowed half of

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n oo

.

The

y con tinued d at e v i r r a w alking until they apex o f a mount they ain. Never before had seen their o wn town from so high. the

“It’s so beautiful, it looks like a white and red ant hill,” said Roco.

“Yes,” said Luca, laughing, “it’s so beautiful that the people look like little black ants quickly moving through their white and red ant hill.”

And in a single chomp, they swallowed the entire town.

They continued walking, swallowing volcanoes that were so beautiful they looked like green giraffes.

And swallowing giraffes that were so beautiful they looked like cherry trees, brown and yellow.

And swallowing cherry trees that were so beautiful they looked like faces full of freckles.

Luca asked his older brother, “Why does every beautiful thing look like something else?�

Th

ey

sw

w allo

ed countries

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they loo

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And they swallowed continents that were so beautiful they looked like dark, thick thunderclouds full of rain.

Luca asked his older brother, “Why do I always feel like swallowing every beautiful thing?�

And they swallowed entire worlds that were so beautiful they looked like footballs, others that looked like enormous green and blue eyes, and others that looked like watermelons cut in half.

They swallowed constellations of stars that were so beautiful they looked like long strings of white light bulbs.

And they swallowed entire galaxies that were so beautiful they seemed to be enormous ruby and emerald necklaces.

And they swallowed entire universes that were so beautiful that they seemed like open books.

They swallowed and swallowed beautiful things until there were no more beautiful things left to swallow.

Roco and Luca turned to look at one another, and they smiled widely, very widely, as widely as possible, and each of them swallowed himself.

Only they two remained.

And two beautiful things remained.

EDUARDO HALFON / the author “I was born among the volcanoes of Guatemala and now I live amid the cornfields of the United States.

I like the rain, chocolate, numbers, books, cats and riding my red bicycle with its yellow chain. As a child I wanted to be a pianist. I get sick on airplanes. I sneeze a lot. I write books for big people. This is my first book for people who are not so big.”

MARIA LAVEZZI / the illustrator “I’ve drawn since I was able to hold a pencil in my hand. I still remember one Christmas when I had asked Papá Noel for something to draw with, whatever he could give me. You can’t imagine how I felt to see my gift: a lovely box of pencils, full of the most beautiful colors! Ever since then I couldn’t stop.

For me, any paper transforms into a character or an illustrated story.”

Two brothers, on a fantastic journey, feast on a banquet of beautiful things that always remind them of other things.

There, they discover light posts that look like little tin soldiers, lagoons that resemble a deflated sky, volcanoes that look like giraffes. A lovely exercise in imagination that considers how children appropriate the world around them.