José Lins do Rego Cavalcanti (July 3, 1901 – September 12, 1957) was a Brazilian novelist most known for his semi-autobiographical "sugarcane cycle." These novels were the basis of films that had distribution in the English-speaking world. Cavalcanti was born in Pilar, Paraíba. Along with Graciliano Ramos and Jorge Amado he stands as one of the greatest regionalist writers of Brazil According to Otto Maria Carpeaux, José Lins was "the last of the story tellers". His first novel, Menino de Engenho ("Boy from the plantation"), was published with difficulty, but soon it got praised by the critics. He died in Rio de Janeiro, aged 56. Source: Wikipedia (en)