The website Estronho e Esquésito emerged in 1996, back in the early days of the Brazilian internet, as a refuge for curiosities, oddities, and out-of-the-ordinary entertainment. A space where the strange was celebrated, the esquésito gained a voice, and the conventional was left at the door.
Long before any editorial plan, Estronho already existed as an idea: a slanted look at the world, a declared taste for what doesn't fit in.
It was a time when Google, YouTube, or social media didn't exist. We scavenged for strange news, weird images, bizarre cases, urban legends, and eccentric names — things that today we couldn't even dream of publishing as humor, at the risk of the "snowflake" generation showing up armed with lawsuits.
Around 2004, short stories written by people from all over Brazil and Portugal arrived. Estronho also became an open space to showcase talent or simply let out those restless ideas that found no shelter anywhere else.
And that's why, in 2011, this spirit ended up finding another path and Editora Estronho was born, focused on fantasy, horror, and science fiction1.
Intense years followed, marked by books, restless authors, passionate readers, and the building of a catalog that never wanted to be obvious — it avoided the common and ended up inspiring other publishers to be more daring in their editions.
The original website was shut down in 2016. The publishing house continued its course until early 2025, when its activities were officially closed.
Editora Estronho remains as a memory, an archive, and part of a journey that always believed that the strange is not an exception — it is a language. And yes, we still have some e-books scattered out there.