Largely ignored by Brazil’s literary establishment, Mr. Lucchetti has toiled in obscurity since the 1950s. But younger Brazilian publishers, filmmakers and graphic novelists are now discovering him, republishing his books or drawing on them as inspiration for their own creations.

“Lucchetti has been unjustly marginalized,” said Ivan Cardoso, a director of low-budget horror films, whose spoof “Werewolf in Amazonia” was co-written by Mr. Lucchetti. “He’s a unique figure within Brazilian culture,” said Mr. Cardoso, who compares Mr. Lucchetti to H. P. Lovecraft, the American author of horror fiction.

The new renown is a little jarring for Mr. Lucchetti, a gaunt, self-described introvert who bears a physical resemblance to the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges. In a rambling conversation at his home over glasses of Coca-Cola, Mr. Lucchetti readily acknowledged that he might seem eccentric in Jardinópolis, an agricultural town surrounded by sugar cane fields.

“I detest where I live,” he said, emphasizing that he also abhorrs sunlight and the chitchat of provincial life. “I would live entirely at night if I could pull it off,” he said. “My neighbors are my enemies.”

Even though he sets many of his books in places like Los Angeles, New York or London, Mr. Lucchetti has never traveled outside Brazil. Born Rubens Francisco Lucchetti to descendants of Italian immigrants who settled in the nearby town of Santa Rita do Passa Quatro, he counts São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro as the only major cities he knows.