Snakes' Nest: or A Tale Badly Told

Brazilian poet Lêdo Ivo’s Snakes’ Nest is a “tale badly told” in a most artful manner. Part political allegory, the novel explores the nature of good and evil in a provincial port in northeastern Brazil during World War II––all the ills of the repressive dictatorship then in power are reflected in the corrupt and violent society of Maceió. As Ivo says: “During a dictatorship, all narratives are poorly told, since a dictatorship is the Kingdom of Lies and cannot tolerate the truth.” But to f...