"Women rise defiant against misogynistic forces in the truth-filled novel The Simple Art of Killing a Woman. While the dead cannot be resurrected, lives might be spared with knowledge-and via feminist alliances." - Foreword Reviews, Starred Review
"Brazilian author Melo weaves together crime, magical realism, mythology, and social criticism in this relevant and urgent translation from the Portuguese by Lewis. Though the subject is horrifying, especially in the details about marred and dismembered victims, the narrator's voice is captivating and compelling, offering strength and purpose rather than despair." - Kirkus Reviews
"Melo's thoughtful first-person narrative and starkly powerful verse interwoven with reports of murdered women fluidly bears the weight of a gripping crime story and fearless social commentary." -Christine Tran, Booklist
"The Simple Art of Killing a Woman is a mixed-genre account of femicide in Brazil-and how this gender-based violence intersects with indigeneity, Blackness, and socio-racial legibility. . . . It bears bountiful witness through its repetition, not of metaphor but political statement, fact, and serious proclamation." - Kaitlan Bui, Public Books
"The Simple Art of Killing a Woman is an important book. . . . Even though the topic is gaining more attention, a lot of silence remains around the issue of femicide in Brazil. That silence can be dangerous for women. As such, the novel is a defiant work." - Alysson Casais, Full Stop
"Patrícia Melo explodes the boundaries between two worlds with energy and colour. The Simple Art of Killing a Woman vibrates with rage at femicide and glows with hallucinatory images of jaguars and Amazons." - Martina Läubli, New Journal of Zürich
"Melo's blackest novel to date and her best, a formal and stylistic high point in her work. The protagonist finds a way out of powerlessness into a self-determined life. 'Literature', says Melo, 'is a space for resistance', especially in dark times. It is again more necessary than ever." - Dagmar Kaindl, Buchkultur
"Melo, an accomplished noir crime novelist and screenwriter, has truly found her subject in The Simple Art of Killing a Woman. Through the lens of gender-based violence she is able to examine the inequity and corruption that undergird and reinforce it in Brazil, the country with the fifth-highest rate of femicide in the world." - Alejandra Oliva, Americas Quarterly
"Brazil has a problem with femicides. It often takes years for a court case to be initiated and a few years longer if the victim was poor, Black, or indigenous. Melo makes the fates of real victims visible in her latest novel. Her determination to pursue a certain style, the freedom with which she writes confidently around generic set pieces, is evident at first glance. . . . Melo puts words into a singing rhythm, arranges them in verse so that they unfold as poems." - Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
"Patrícia Melo's novel is a powerful plea against male violence, not a diatribe but a brilliantly composed piece of literature." - Marcus Müntefering, Der Freitag
"Engaging and well-written, the book is the author's first to have a female protagonist. In addressing a sad reality, Melo has chosen to blend the plot with a little fable. The Simple Art of Killing a Woman is a work of fiction that depicts real-life events." - Ana Clara Brant, Jornal Estado de Minas
"Femicide is the subject of Patrícia Melo's excellent new book. . . . Based on real events in Cruzeiro do Sul, a lawyer investigates cases and hears testimonies of the tragic stories of wom
