For me it’s gotta be “Morte e Vida Severina”/ “Severino Death and Life”. It’s an epic poem narrating the journey of a poor man from Northeastern Brazil, a famously poor and segregated region that’s frequently affected by severe droughts, fleeing from his home and walking to the big city to survive the season. On the way he describes all the misery he experiences and sees.
One stanza that has stuck with me for years goes something like this "And all of us Severinos/With the same lives/Will die of the same/Severe Severino death,/The death died of/Old age before thirty/Of an ambush before twenty/And of hunger day by day/(Of weakness and plague/The Severino death/attacks at all ages/even those not born)
This is fake because I’m not Brazilian, but Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands, by Jorge Amado. A masterpiece of good humor and understanding of people.
The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann. I mean, I know there are translations of all of Mann’s works, but I don’t think he even remotely gets the attention he deserves. Such an incredible author.
The World of the End