Career
The double Jabuti award was an unprecedented feat for a rookie writer Malagueta was originally written in 1960, but the manuscript was destroyed in a fire. Antonio then spent the following two years rewriting lieutenant
This literary success led him into a career in journalism, his first job being with the Jornal do Brasil.
He subsequently worked for Manchete magazine, the newspaper O Pasquim and various alternative press outlets, opposing the military regime in Brazil. During this period, João Antonio alternated residence between Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.
In the late 1960s he decided to radically change his life. Antônio wrote fifteen books in total, but he always refused to participate in ceremonies and to join groups and literary academies, only accepting invitations to speak at schools and universities.
He traveled throughout Brazil in 1978 and Europe in 1985.
In 1987 he was awarded a scholarship and settled in Germany, where he remained until 1989. During this period, he also visited the Netherlands and Poland, holding numerous conferences. Antônio died alone in 1996, in Rio de Janeiro, his body only being discovered fifteen days after his death.
In 1976, the title story of Malagueta, Perus e Bacanaço, about three pool players from the underground of São Paulo, was turned into a film called O Jogo da Vida, directed by Maurice Capovila and starring Lima Duarte.