A masterpiece! Brazil has the feel of an enchanted virgin forest, a totally new and original world for the reader-explorer to discover. L' Express, Paris
Pulsing with vigor, this is a vast novel to tell the story of a vast country. Uys recreates history almost entirely "at ground level," through the eyes and actions of an awesome cast of characters. Publishers Weekly
A massive, richly detailed novel, informative and intriguing. Uys has a sense of pace and an eye for detail that rarely fail him. Washington Post
Uys has accomplished what no Brazilian author from José ¤e Alencar to Jorge Amado was able to do. He is the first outsider with the total honesty and sympathy to write our national epic in all its decisive episodes. Descriptions like those of the war with Paraguay are unsurpassed in our literature and evoke the great passages of War and Peace. Wilson Martins, Jornal do Brasil
Excerpt
Excerpt
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An intimate look at the intellectual and artistic journey in the creation of Brazil |
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BRAZIL
A novel by Errol Lincoln Uys
A spellbinding saga on a truly epic scale that brings to life Brazil and her history.
Through the lives of two powerful families, Brazil depicts five turbulent centuries in the history of a remarkable land. From colony to kingdom, from empire to nation, Brazil is filled with memorable people living through one of the great adventures in human? history.
The Cavalcantis are among the original settlers and establish the classic Brazilian plantation -- vast, powerful, built with slave labor. The da Silvas represent the second element in both contemporary and historical Brazil: pathfinders and prospectors. For generations, these adventurers have set their eyes on El Dorado, which they ultimately find in a coffee fortune at Sao Paulo.
Brazil is an intensely human story, brutal and violent, tender and passionate. Perilous explorations through the Brazilian wilderness . . . the perpetual clash of pioneer and native, visionary and fortune hunter, master and slave, zealot and exploiter . . . the thunder of war on land and sea as European powers and South American nations pursue their territorial conquests... the triumphs and tragedies of a people who built a nation covering half the South American continent, all are here in one spell-binding saga.
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20th Anniversary Edition Les Presses de la Cite, Paris "A Masterpiece!" L'Express "Uys's characters are brilliant and colorful, combining elements of the best swashbuckler with those worthy of deepest reflection" Le Figaro, Paris
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A BRAZILIAN'S APPRECIATION OF BRAZIL
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by Maria Jandyra Cunha, University of Brasilia A comparative study of the books of
JOHN DOS PASSOS JOHN UPDIKE ERROL LINCOLN UYS
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Author's Note to the New Edition
"Why choose Brazil as your subject?" people ask me. I immigrated to America from South Africa in 1977. One of my first assignments was with James A. Michener, the renowned historical novelist, working for two years as assistant on his South African book, The Covenant. We spoke about countries with an epic history that would lend itself to a novel on a grand scale. One of the places I suggested was Brazil, which has captivated me since I was a boy.
It was critical to have first-hand experience of the country. I began my research in Portugal, before traveling to Brazil, where I covered 15,000 miles, almost exclusively by bus to get a feel for that vast country.
My journey took me into the sertão, the arid backlands of the Northeast and to the Casas Grandes of coastal Pernambuco. I voyaged the Amazon from Belem to Manaus and rode by bus down to southernmost Rondonia. I followed the route of the bandeirantes, the Brazilian pathfinders, west of Sao Paulo and roamed the highlands of Minas Gerais.
The writing of Brazil took five years. Like my fictional hero, Amador Flores da Silva, I knew periods of utter loneliness and fear; times when I felt the caatinga closing in on me but always, I broke through the barrier. I never lost the will to understand the Brazilian "thing."
The Cavalcantis of Santo Tomas and the da Silvas of Itatinga and most of the incidents involving these two families are fictional. Aruanã Segge Proot, Black Peter, the Ferreiras, Antonio Paciência, Bruno Salgado -- these, too, are imaginary characters. The towns of Rosario and Jurema in Pernambuco and Tiberica in Sao Paulo do not exist.
King Afonso I of the Kongo; Nobrega and Anchieta; Tomé ¤e Sousa; Mem de Sa, Raposo Tavares; Johan Maurits of Nassau-Siegen; "Ganga Zumba" of Palmares; Marquis of Pombal; Bento Parente Maciel; "Tooth-Puller;" Emperor Pedro II; President Francisco Solano Lopez; Eliza Lynch; Joaquim Nabuco; Antonio Conselheiro -- these are real characters and what is said of them relates to recorded history.
The enslavement and massacre of the Brazilian Indians; the path-finding and prospecting journeys of the bandeirantes; the Lisbon earthquake; the republican uprising at Minas Gerais; the Paraguayan War; the abolition of slavery; the rebellion at Canudos; the birth of Brasilia, these principle Brazilian historical events are faithfully summarized within the context of the novel.
The original work ended at the inauguration of Brasilia in 1960. I have added an "Afterword" that brings the story up to April 2000. Returning to the manuscript, I have also cast a fresh eye over the core of the book, editing sections to make the journey that much easier and more captivating for the reader-explorer of Brazil.
Errol Lincoln Uys
Dorchester, Massachusetts
Brazil was first published in the United States in 1986 by Simon and Schuster, New York. A French edition titled La Forteresse Verte (The Green Fortress,) Presses de la Cite -- Paris won the highest critical praise in summer 1987. Brazil has also been translated into Brazilian-Portuguese, German, Dutch and Hebrew.