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Power politics
Margaret Atwood's Power Politics first appeared in 1971, startling its audience with its vital dance of woman and man. Thirty years later it still startles, and is just as iconoclastic as ever. These poems occupy all at once the intimate, the political, and the mythic. Here Atwood makes us realize that we may think our own personal dichotomies are unique, but really they are multiple, universal. Clear, direct, wry, unrelenting-Atwood's poetic powers are honed to perfection in this important early work.
About the Author:
Margaret Atwood is the award-winning author of more than 25 books. She was the winner of the 2000 Booker Prize, and lives in Toronto.
56 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1971
About the author
Margaret Atwood
563 books91.1k followersMargaret Atwood was born in 1939 in Ottawa and grew up in northern Ontario, Quebec, and Toronto. She received her undergraduate degree from Victoria College at the University of Toronto and her master's degree from Radcliffe College.
Throughout her writing career, Margaret Atwood has received numerous awards and honourary degrees. She is the author of more than thirty-five volumes of poetry, children’s literature, fiction, and non-fiction and is perhaps best known for her novels, which include The Edible Woman (1970), The Handmaid's Tale (1983), The Robber Bride (1994), Alias Grace (1996), and The Blind Assassin, which won the prestigious Booker Prize in 2000. Atwood's dystopic novel, Oryx and Crake, was published in 2003. The Tent (mini-fictions) and Moral Disorder (short stories) both appeared in 2006. Her most recent volume of poetry, The Door, was published in 2007. Her non-fiction book, Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth in the Massey series, appeared in 2008, and her most recent novel, The Year of the Flood, in the autumn of 2009. Ms. Atwood's work has been published in more than forty languages, including Farsi, Japanese, Turkish, Finnish, Korean, Icelandic and Estonian. In 2004 she co-invented the Long Pen TM.
Margaret Atwood currently lives in Toronto with writer Graeme Gibson.
Associations: Margaret Atwood was President of the Writers' Union of Canada from May 1981 to May 1982, and was President of International P.E.N., Canadian Centre (English Speaking) from 1984-1986. She and Graeme Gibson are the Joint Honourary Presidents of the Rare Bird Society within BirdLife International. Ms. Atwood is also a current Vice-President of PEN International.
Throughout her writing career, Margaret Atwood has received numerous awards and honourary degrees. She is the author of more than thirty-five volumes of poetry, children’s literature, fiction, and non-fiction and is perhaps best known for her novels, which include The Edible Woman (1970), The Handmaid's Tale (1983), The Robber Bride (1994), Alias Grace (1996), and The Blind Assassin, which won the prestigious Booker Prize in 2000. Atwood's dystopic novel, Oryx and Crake, was published in 2003. The Tent (mini-fictions) and Moral Disorder (short stories) both appeared in 2006. Her most recent volume of poetry, The Door, was published in 2007. Her non-fiction book, Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth in the Massey series, appeared in 2008, and her most recent novel, The Year of the Flood, in the autumn of 2009. Ms. Atwood's work has been published in more than forty languages, including Farsi, Japanese, Turkish, Finnish, Korean, Icelandic and Estonian. In 2004 she co-invented the Long Pen TM.
Margaret Atwood currently lives in Toronto with writer Graeme Gibson.
Associations: Margaret Atwood was President of the Writers' Union of Canada from May 1981 to May 1982, and was President of International P.E.N., Canadian Centre (English Speaking) from 1984-1986. She and Graeme Gibson are the Joint Honourary Presidents of the Rare Bird Society within BirdLife International. Ms. Atwood is also a current Vice-President of PEN International.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 199 reviews
November 19, 2019
if i love you is that a fact or a weapon
April 6, 2022
“please die i said
so i can write about it”
so i can write about it”
August 15, 2022
Nem sempre gosto do que a Atwood escreve, às vezes a acho amena demais comparado ao sangue nos olhos que nós millennials temos e esse livro de poemas escrito em 1971 é um exemplo disso.
Ele é bom na questão das dinâmicas de poder sobre relacionamentos, mas com um discurso muito passivo, sabe? Todos os poemas são endereçados ao outro com uma veia passiva-agressiva que deu no meu saquinho, nada contra livros monotemáticos, mas esse foi me irritando muito.
Enfim, o feminismo boomer não é o mesmo que o millennial, tampouco o jeito de fazer poesia o é.
Ele é bom na questão das dinâmicas de poder sobre relacionamentos, mas com um discurso muito passivo, sabe? Todos os poemas são endereçados ao outro com uma veia passiva-agressiva que deu no meu saquinho, nada contra livros monotemáticos, mas esse foi me irritando muito.
Enfim, o feminismo boomer não é o mesmo que o millennial, tampouco o jeito de fazer poesia o é.
Read
December 29, 2020Sometimes I forget how amazing Atwood is, but reading her poetry and early work helps remind me.
March 1, 2018
I readily admit that poetry is not my favourite genre. It's not poetry's fault, it's more that I probably just don't get it. Too thoughtful for my poor mind, maybe. So when one of my book groups decided that March would be poetry month, I decided to try poetry again. I remember reading The Circle Game by Margaret Atwood back in my university days so I thought maybe I'd try some of her offerings for the challenge. Hence finding a copy of Power Politics as one of my choices.
I have enjoyed Atwood's fiction and science fiction very much over the years. What did I think about this poetry offering? From a pure aesthetics perspective, I liked the look of the book, the clean simplicity of the cover and the layout of the words on the page in this Anansi Press edition from 1971. It's a short book so I thought I'd try to read it in one sitting and it was easy to get into the flow of the poems. There was a mood and feel to the book, the struggle and emotions within relationships. I actually could appreciate the feelings. There were some parts that I thought were just perfect; "I can change myself more easily than I can change you" or "A truth should exist, it should not be used like this. If I love you is that a fact or a weapon?"
I won't say I got it all, but it did strike a chord, a different mode of story. I'm glad I tried it. (4 stars)
I have enjoyed Atwood's fiction and science fiction very much over the years. What did I think about this poetry offering? From a pure aesthetics perspective, I liked the look of the book, the clean simplicity of the cover and the layout of the words on the page in this Anansi Press edition from 1971. It's a short book so I thought I'd try to read it in one sitting and it was easy to get into the flow of the poems. There was a mood and feel to the book, the struggle and emotions within relationships. I actually could appreciate the feelings. There were some parts that I thought were just perfect; "I can change myself more easily than I can change you" or "A truth should exist, it should not be used like this. If I love you is that a fact or a weapon?"
I won't say I got it all, but it did strike a chord, a different mode of story. I'm glad I tried it. (4 stars)
May 21, 2017
I was in the mood for some Margaret Atwood so I thought it was time to dive into some of her poetry for the first time. I wasn't blown away, but it was an enjoyable and quick read. Part of the reason why I chose this book of poetry was the fact that this amazing short poem (below) was featured in last week's episode of The Handmaid's Tale.
you fit into me
like a hook into an eye
a fish hook
an open eye
September 22, 2020
hello this felt like a sucker punch
rr2: this book hurts for real
rr3: "/ too much of this is fatal"
rr4: so ive been thinking abt hannigram- [a sniper kills me]
rr2: this book hurts for real
rr3: "/ too much of this is fatal"
rr4: so ive been thinking abt hannigram- [a sniper kills me]
August 10, 2021
"I touch you, straighten the sheet, you turn over
in the bed, tender, sun comes through the curtains
Which of us will survive
which of us will survive the other"
I always adored the juxtaposition of love and violence in literature, especially in poetry. The way we cut ourselves in small pieces so we can fit into the hands of our lovers. The way we destroy each other through passion, when every kiss is a bullet, and the relationship turns into a battlefield. What can I say, toxic relationships in literature are kinda hot.
"I can change myself
more easily
than I can change you"
And Margaret Atwood does exactly that. Her poems are raw, full of both tenderness and resentment for the one she loves. She knows the love is destroying her, and yet this catastrophe leaves a sweet taste in her mouth.
"If I love you
is that a fact or a weapon?"
Death plays a big role in this collection, she wishes the death of her lover, not of the in real life person, but of the person she has created in her mind. Of the person she loves and wants to let go. She wishes he would die inside her, so she can be free and immortalize him in her art, maybe as a form of catharsis for them both.
"Please die I said
so I can write about it"
and
"of course you'll die
but not yet, you'll outlive
even my distortions of you"
In general, Power Politics is a beautiful collection about the power plays in a relationship, the love, the resentment, the anger, the tenderness. All these feelings exist simultaneously between the lovers, interwoven with one another like limbs. Atwood paints beautiful pictures with her words, sometimes touching the mythical, and others the more mundane, in all cases melancholic. While it doesn't top Dearly for me, that I read earlier this year, it's still a collection that I'll revisit in the future.
"I should have used leaves
and silver to prevent you
instead I summoned
you are not a bird you do not fly
you are not an animal you do not run
you are not a man
your mouth is nothingness
where it touches me I vanish
you descent on me like age
you descend on me like earth"
in the bed, tender, sun comes through the curtains
Which of us will survive
which of us will survive the other"
I always adored the juxtaposition of love and violence in literature, especially in poetry. The way we cut ourselves in small pieces so we can fit into the hands of our lovers. The way we destroy each other through passion, when every kiss is a bullet, and the relationship turns into a battlefield. What can I say, toxic relationships in literature are kinda hot.
"I can change myself
more easily
than I can change you"
And Margaret Atwood does exactly that. Her poems are raw, full of both tenderness and resentment for the one she loves. She knows the love is destroying her, and yet this catastrophe leaves a sweet taste in her mouth.
"If I love you
is that a fact or a weapon?"
Death plays a big role in this collection, she wishes the death of her lover, not of the in real life person, but of the person she has created in her mind. Of the person she loves and wants to let go. She wishes he would die inside her, so she can be free and immortalize him in her art, maybe as a form of catharsis for them both.
"Please die I said
so I can write about it"
and
"of course you'll die
but not yet, you'll outlive
even my distortions of you"
In general, Power Politics is a beautiful collection about the power plays in a relationship, the love, the resentment, the anger, the tenderness. All these feelings exist simultaneously between the lovers, interwoven with one another like limbs. Atwood paints beautiful pictures with her words, sometimes touching the mythical, and others the more mundane, in all cases melancholic. While it doesn't top Dearly for me, that I read earlier this year, it's still a collection that I'll revisit in the future.
"I should have used leaves
and silver to prevent you
instead I summoned
you are not a bird you do not fly
you are not an animal you do not run
you are not a man
your mouth is nothingness
where it touches me I vanish
you descent on me like age
you descend on me like earth"
January 13, 2021
I read this twice back to back, because it was just delicious.
Atwood's words shoot to kill with precision in this collection of poems depicting the age-old power struggle between Man and Woman, the brunt of which is mostly borne by the latter. Rich in imagery, the poems look beyond the coupling of two parties with which happy stories traditionally end with, and explore the ways it can't just stay that way, in static, blissful co-existence: the tactics deployed in the games played to even remotely appear to have the upper hand (for no apparent reason), the damage each can inflict on the other just to show they can. While most of these are individual poems, it's the sequences - though few and far between - that truly impress.
My favorite lines from the "Their attitudes differ" sequence:
You held out your hand
I took your fingerprints
You asked for love
I gave you only descriptions
Please die I said
so I can write about it
And the untitled sequence about truth/lie:
We are hard on each other
and call it honesty,
choosing our jagged truths
with care and aiming them across
the neutral table.
The things we say are
true; it is our crooked
aims, our choices
turn them criminal.
[...]
A truth should exist,
it should not be used
like this. If I love you
is that a fact or a weapon?
Atwood's words shoot to kill with precision in this collection of poems depicting the age-old power struggle between Man and Woman, the brunt of which is mostly borne by the latter. Rich in imagery, the poems look beyond the coupling of two parties with which happy stories traditionally end with, and explore the ways it can't just stay that way, in static, blissful co-existence: the tactics deployed in the games played to even remotely appear to have the upper hand (for no apparent reason), the damage each can inflict on the other just to show they can. While most of these are individual poems, it's the sequences - though few and far between - that truly impress.
My favorite lines from the "Their attitudes differ" sequence:
You held out your hand
I took your fingerprints
You asked for love
I gave you only descriptions
Please die I said
so I can write about it
And the untitled sequence about truth/lie:
We are hard on each other
and call it honesty,
choosing our jagged truths
with care and aiming them across
the neutral table.
The things we say are
true; it is our crooked
aims, our choices
turn them criminal.
[...]
A truth should exist,
it should not be used
like this. If I love you
is that a fact or a weapon?
December 14, 2023
Esse é um mediano livro de poesias da autora Margaret Atwood (que gosto muitíssimo).
Alguns poemas são impactantes. A imagética da autora também tem os seus momentos (marquei diversos versos e estrofes), mas esse é o caso de uma "poeta falhada" (na própria visão da autora) que encontrou seu caminho e "auge" com a prosa.
Acho interessante esses casos de artistas que sonham em ser uma coisa e acabam como outra (no caso de Atwood, com plena excelência).
De qualquer forma, foi uma boa leitura.
Alguns poemas são impactantes. A imagética da autora também tem os seus momentos (marquei diversos versos e estrofes), mas esse é o caso de uma "poeta falhada" (na própria visão da autora) que encontrou seu caminho e "auge" com a prosa.
Acho interessante esses casos de artistas que sonham em ser uma coisa e acabam como outra (no caso de Atwood, com plena excelência).
De qualquer forma, foi uma boa leitura.
February 9, 2020
you long to be bandaged,
before you have been cut
before you have been cut
March 29, 2022
A violent testimony of love as battleground. Every word filled with sorrow and a diseased attachment.
June 3, 2021
¿Por qué estos poemas no son lectura obligada en el cuerpo de teoría feminista? ¿Cómo le hacemos llegar este tipo de lectura a otras mujeres, especialmente a las que están viviendo ciclos de violencia constante en pareja? Escapa de mi comprensión, que a pesar de que son poemas, tienen una carga política y crítica de las dinámicas de las relaciones heternormativas que faltan en la conversación actual.
Atwood está claramente influenciada por la teoría, solo que su crítica cuestiona directamente a los hombres, la violencia que ejercen contra la mujer y su propia relación con las construcciones masculinas. El texto al mismo tiempo es de gran claridad para cualquier mujer que haya caminado esta tierra. De denuncias la brutalidad a la comprensión critica por el estado en que ellos se encuentran, son los creadores de su propia destrucción sin el valor de enfrentarlo al ser también adictos al poder que ejercen sobre nosotras.
En algún punto la elocuencia de la autora pregunta si es posible llegar a una forma de amor heteroafectivo, frente a la gravedad de los hechos que nos rodean pareciera ser que no y si ocurre serían eventos que raramente ocurren, lo que no les quita su existencia, ni validez, son, pero ¿Cómo pasar del evento aislado a una generalidad que beneficie a las mujeres para que su vida siga en riesgo?
Vencer los juegos de poder a los que se refiere el titulo es uno de los grandes desafíos feministas de todos los tiempo, reconocer que es justo ese poder el que promueve la otredad de las mujeres dentro del patriarcado y mientras exista ese poder estamos lejos de nuestra propia reivindicación y redignificación para vivir sin la amenaza constante del sufrimiento y el dolor de las muertes que provoca la misoginia.
Atwood está claramente influenciada por la teoría, solo que su crítica cuestiona directamente a los hombres, la violencia que ejercen contra la mujer y su propia relación con las construcciones masculinas. El texto al mismo tiempo es de gran claridad para cualquier mujer que haya caminado esta tierra. De denuncias la brutalidad a la comprensión critica por el estado en que ellos se encuentran, son los creadores de su propia destrucción sin el valor de enfrentarlo al ser también adictos al poder que ejercen sobre nosotras.
En algún punto la elocuencia de la autora pregunta si es posible llegar a una forma de amor heteroafectivo, frente a la gravedad de los hechos que nos rodean pareciera ser que no y si ocurre serían eventos que raramente ocurren, lo que no les quita su existencia, ni validez, son, pero ¿Cómo pasar del evento aislado a una generalidad que beneficie a las mujeres para que su vida siga en riesgo?
Vencer los juegos de poder a los que se refiere el titulo es uno de los grandes desafíos feministas de todos los tiempo, reconocer que es justo ese poder el que promueve la otredad de las mujeres dentro del patriarcado y mientras exista ese poder estamos lejos de nuestra propia reivindicación y redignificación para vivir sin la amenaza constante del sufrimiento y el dolor de las muertes que provoca la misoginia.
December 30, 2018
Really loved this poetry collection by Atwood. I've read some of her other works, but never her poems and I must say I really loved them! There were many different poems: some short, some long; some having very clear syntax, some all over the place, but all in all I liked most of them and some were even extremely great.
October 14, 2021
If I love you
is that a fact or a weapon?
is that a fact or a weapon?
December 11, 2019
I'm surprised I didn't connect or care for almost all of these poems. A few lines here or there resonated, but this wasn't groundbreaking for me.
November 18, 2022
A gloriously furious little book of poetry
July 21, 2023
I think this book is just brilliant and criminally underrated. It may very well be my favourite poetry collection.
Power politics is a book about breaking up, falling out of love, and the pain partners can inflict on one another. It’s about the power men hold in relationships over women (especially during the 60s-70s when this was published), and the actions women must do and accept being inflicted upon them to survive. It moves through the different stages of a failing relationship, the pain of feeling two lovers start to drift apart, the sexual violence women face, the self-deprecation and self-blaming of the failing relationship, the anger towards your partner for giving up, and finally acceptance and finding the need and want to move on.
Atwood writes about the suffering a women feels when she gives up everything, stripping herself of her identity, to have only a sliver of a man. And to somehow yearn for his approval after all the suffering he has caused.
Atwood encourages and shouts the message for women to grow strong and to feel whole without a man. To know that one can exist and thrive in the world without their partner.
Some of my favourite quotes -
“Please die I said so I can write about it”
“You will have nothing but me in a worse way than before”
“Which of us will survive
Which of us will survive the other”
“If I love you, is that a fact or a weapon”
“It is no longer possible to be both human and alive”
“You attempt merely power
You accomplish merely suffering”
“You have the earth’s nets
I only have a pair of scissors”
“There is no way I can loose you when you are already lost”
Power politics is a book about breaking up, falling out of love, and the pain partners can inflict on one another. It’s about the power men hold in relationships over women (especially during the 60s-70s when this was published), and the actions women must do and accept being inflicted upon them to survive. It moves through the different stages of a failing relationship, the pain of feeling two lovers start to drift apart, the sexual violence women face, the self-deprecation and self-blaming of the failing relationship, the anger towards your partner for giving up, and finally acceptance and finding the need and want to move on.
Atwood writes about the suffering a women feels when she gives up everything, stripping herself of her identity, to have only a sliver of a man. And to somehow yearn for his approval after all the suffering he has caused.
Atwood encourages and shouts the message for women to grow strong and to feel whole without a man. To know that one can exist and thrive in the world without their partner.
Some of my favourite quotes -
“Please die I said so I can write about it”
“You will have nothing but me in a worse way than before”
“Which of us will survive
Which of us will survive the other”
“If I love you, is that a fact or a weapon”
“It is no longer possible to be both human and alive”
“You attempt merely power
You accomplish merely suffering”
“You have the earth’s nets
I only have a pair of scissors”
“There is no way I can loose you when you are already lost”
November 17, 2020
i quite loved some lines and the atmosphere atwood constructed. really my cup of tea, especially those that jumped from the page and punched me in the gut, but overall i felt like it was more of a visual experience than a reading one? nothing really stood out for me.
anyway:
We waltz in slow motion through an air stale with aphorisms
have to peel you off me in the form of smoke and melted celluloid
you long to be bandaged before you have been cut.
I will suspend my search for germs if you will keep your fingers off the microfilm hidden inside my skin
Because you are never here but always there, I forget not you but what you look like
I touch your mouth, I don’t want to hurt you any more now than I have to
It would be so good if you’d only stay up there where I put you, I could believe, you’d solve most of my religious problems
yes at first you go down smooth as pills, all of me breathes you in and then it’s a kick in the head, orange and brutal, sharp jewels hit and my hair splinters the adjectives fall away from me, no threads left holding me, I flake apart layer by layer down quietly to the bone, my skull unfolds to an astounded flower
the mirage of us hands locked, smiling, as it fades into the white desert.
A truth should exist, it should not be used like this. If I love you is that a fact or a weapon?
your mouth is nothingness where it touches me I vanish
There is no way I can lose you when you are lost already
anyway:
We waltz in slow motion through an air stale with aphorisms
have to peel you off me in the form of smoke and melted celluloid
you long to be bandaged before you have been cut.
I will suspend my search for germs if you will keep your fingers off the microfilm hidden inside my skin
Because you are never here but always there, I forget not you but what you look like
I touch your mouth, I don’t want to hurt you any more now than I have to
It would be so good if you’d only stay up there where I put you, I could believe, you’d solve most of my religious problems
yes at first you go down smooth as pills, all of me breathes you in and then it’s a kick in the head, orange and brutal, sharp jewels hit and my hair splinters the adjectives fall away from me, no threads left holding me, I flake apart layer by layer down quietly to the bone, my skull unfolds to an astounded flower
the mirage of us hands locked, smiling, as it fades into the white desert.
A truth should exist, it should not be used like this. If I love you is that a fact or a weapon?
your mouth is nothingness where it touches me I vanish
There is no way I can lose you when you are lost already
August 19, 2022
Não conhecia a veia lírica de Margaret Atwood, e comecei por esta, originalmente publicada em 1971. Tem o bónus de a tradução ser de Ana Luísa Amaral, um dos seus últimos trabalhos, decerto. É uma edição bilingue, excelente para sentir a música original e a música trazida pela língua portuguesa, lado a lado.
É um texto denso e tenso, sobre as relações entre amantes heterossexuais, em que a mulher procura nunca submeter o seu desejo e a sua vontade.
«Pediste amor
Eu dei-te descrições
Morre por favor disse eu
para que eu tenha tema de escrita» P.29
É um texto denso e tenso, sobre as relações entre amantes heterossexuais, em que a mulher procura nunca submeter o seu desejo e a sua vontade.
«Pediste amor
Eu dei-te descrições
Morre por favor disse eu
para que eu tenha tema de escrita» P.29
August 17, 2024
After months of searching I FINALLY got my hands on a copy of this; ever since finding an analysis of "you fit into me" online I was dying to read the rest of the collection. I standby my opinion that Atwood's poetry is far more enjoyable than her prose. The woman that she is. If you have the unfortunate luck of seeing me in the next three to five business days you'll be hearing more about this book.
April 29, 2025
I look up, you are standing on the other side of the window
now
your body
glimmers in the dark
room / you rise above me smooth, chill, stone-
white / you smell of tunnels you smell of too much time
I should have used leaves and silver to prevent you
instead I summoned
you are not a bird you do not fly you are not an animal you do not run
you are not a man
your mouth is nothingness where it touches me I vanish
you descend on me like age you descend on me like earth
now
your body
glimmers in the dark
room / you rise above me smooth, chill, stone-
white / you smell of tunnels you smell of too much time
I should have used leaves and silver to prevent you
instead I summoned
you are not a bird you do not fly you are not an animal you do not run
you are not a man
your mouth is nothingness where it touches me I vanish
you descend on me like age you descend on me like earth
December 28, 2023
a short margaret atwood poem is as good as a long margaret atwood poem is bad. i love my girl so much but this is the truth. also i take back what i said earlier about ebooks being bad for reading poems, they’re just bad for long line poems.
June 17, 2020
you fit into me
like a hook into an eye
a fish hook
an open eye
like a hook into an eye
a fish hook
an open eye
January 23, 2021
Lo primero que leo de ella y espero leer más (quizás la segunda parte de "El cuento de la criada" para saber dónde termina la série y dónde empieza la historia escrita de nuevo). Sus poemas són tan potentes como imagino que son sus novelas. Hablan de distancias, de frialdad, pero también de amor y sacrificio. Lo he gozado MUCHO.
September 27, 2022
me lei la versión bilingüe en una hora y media/ dos la verdad que este tipo de poesía es bastante difícil pero me gustaron mucho algunos pasajes me lo voy a volver a leer a ver si entiendo algo más
July 11, 2023
Margaret I love u
"Please die I said
So I can write about it"
"Please die I said
So I can write about it"
November 2, 2023
ne esco col cuore un po' ammaccato, ma che lettura potente
March 31, 2024
A good collection of poems.
3.7/5 ⭐️
3.7/5 ⭐️
May 27, 2024
3,5 ⭐️
“Qual de nós sobreviverá
qual de nós sobreviverá ao outro”
“Qual de nós sobreviverá
qual de nós sobreviverá ao outro”
Displaying 1 - 30 of 199 reviews