He was born in 1956 in Rio de Janeiro and continues to live there. Rubens studied at the Faculty of Arts at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, specializing in Portuguese-Russian translation. He worked as a Portuguese and literature professor at the secondary school level for his state’s teaching network for 30 years.

   His classes were always at night and generally with young students and adults from working-class neighborhoods. Most were looking to pick up their studies after having been out of school for some time.

   He has translated over 100 books, from both English and Russian into Portuguese. He is author of eight books—five novels and three short story collections. His book As palavras secretas (Companhia das Letras, 1998) received the São Paulo Literary Prize for best book of the year and Barco a seco (Companhia das Letras, 2001) was presented with the Portugal Telecom Literary Award for best book of the year.

   His works have been published in Spain by Rayo Verde Editorial in both Spanish and Catalan. In France his works have been published by Books Editeur and in Portugal by Clube do Autor publishing house.

   His translation of the novel Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy (Cosacnaify) received the Translation Prize from the National Library of Rio de Janeiro. His translation of War and Peace by the same author (Cosacnaify) received translation awards from the Brazilian Academy of Arts and Letters and the Paulista Association of Art Critics.