Reading guide: On Earth As It Is Beneath by Ana Paula Maia, translated by Padma Viswanathan
Stark and unsettling, On Earth As It is Beneath is set in a forgotten prison in remote Brazil where life has taken a sadistic, deadly turn
Padma Viswanathan
Padma Viswanathan is a Canadian-American writer and translator
Her novels have been published in eight countries and shortlisted for the PEN USA Prize, the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and others. She has published short fiction, essays and translations in Granta, The Boston Review, BRICK, and elsewhere. Full-length translations include São Bernardo, by Brazilian novelist Graciliano Ramos and Where We Stand, by Djamila Ribeiro. Her most recent novel, The Charterhouse of Padma, was published in 2024.
She is Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville, where she is Founding Director of the Arkansas International Writer-at-Risk Residency Program.
Her English language translation of On Earth As it is Beneath by Ana Paula Maia was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2026.
Author photo © Alex Tran
On Earth As It Is Beneath is a stark, unsettling exploration of power, violence, destruction and institutional corruption that will linger with readers long after the final page
— The International Booker Prize 2026 judges on On Earth As It Is Beneath
All nominated books
An unsettling novel that sets us among an isolated group of men whose bonds break down in ways both hard to comprehend and impossible to look away from
Translated by Padma Viswanathan
