UFRGS publishes list of mandatory readings for entrance exams and includes ‘O Avesso da Pele’, a book censored in three states | Rio Grande do Sul

The Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) announced, this Thursday (28), the list of mandatory readings for the 2025 Entrance Exam. Four works were included in the list, which has 12 items. See the full list below.

The writer said “moved” with choosing the book for the entrance exam.

“Lots of joy, people! The book is getting where it needs to be: in the hands of students,” he wrote on a social network.

The State Department of Education of RS stated that it had not decided to remove the book from the catalog of works available for high school students. According to the Ministry of Education, the novel was chosen by the school itself to be part of the collection.

However, after the controversy, other states censored the book by the writer from Rio de Janeiro based in RS. The novel was removed from public schools in Mato Grosso do Sul, Goiás and Paraná.

The book, which was published in 2020 and won the Jabuti Prize (the sector’s most important award) the following year, tells the story of Pedro, whose father was murdered in a police attack. The work presents racial issues ranging from structural racism to police violenceand also deals with the fetishization and sexualization of black bodies.

Writer Jeferson Tenório talks about ‘The reverse of the skin’; work is the subject of controversy in RS

In addition to “O Avesso da Pele”, three other works appear on the list of mandatory readings for the first time: “Niketche: A Story of Polygamy”by Paulina Chiziane; “But what world do you live in?”, by José Falero; is selection of songs by Lupicínio Rodrigues.

These works are added to eight others, already included in previous editions of the entrance exam:

• PAULINA CHIZIANE – Niketche: a story of polygamy
• JEFERSON TENÓRIO – The reverse side of the skin
• JOSÉ FALERO – But what world do you live in?
• KAKÁ WERÁ – The land of a thousand peoples
• RUTH GUIMARÃES – Deep water
• GABRIEL GARCÍA MÁRQUEZ – One hundred years of Solitude
• ANGELICA FREITAS – A uterus is the size of a fist
• ARISTOPHANES – Lysistrata
• MACHADO DE ASSIS – Various stories
• JULIA LOPES DE ALMEIDA – Bankruptcy
• SOPHIA DE MELLO BREYNER ANDRESEN – Choral and other poems
• LUPICÍNIO RODRIGUES – Song Select:
  a) “Empty chair” (with Alcides Gonçalves)
  b) “Punishment” (with Alcides Gonçalves)
  c) “Feeding the bitter” (with Piratini)
  d) “Dona Divergência” (with Felisberto Martins)
  e) “She told me this (Go away)”
  f) “These young men (Poor young men)”
  g) “It was like that”
  h) “Madness”
  i) “Maria Rosa” (with Alcides Gonçalves)
  j) “Migalhas” (with Felisberto Martins)
  k) “Boyfriends”
  l) “Nerves of Steel”
  m) “Never”
  n) “If you arrived” (with Felisberto Martins)
  o) “Revenge”
  p) “(Xote da) Happiness”