Deep within the remote backlands of nineteenth-century Brazil lies Canudos, home to all the damned of the earth: prostitutes, bandits, beggars, and every kind of outcast. It is a place where history and civilization have been wiped away. There is no money, no taxation, no marriage, no census. Canudos is a cauldron for the revolutionary spirit in its purest form, a state with all the potential for a true, libertarian paradise—and one the Brazilian government is determined to crush at any cost.
In perhaps his most ambitious and tragic novel, Mario Vargas Llosa tells his own version of the real story of Canudos, inhabiting characters on both sides of the massive, cataclysmic battle between the society and government troops. The resulting novel is a fable of Latin American revolutionary history, an unforgettable story of passion, violence, and the devastation that follows from fanaticism.
Deep within the remote backlands of nineteenth-century Brazil lies Canudos, home to all the damned of the earth: prostitutes, bandits, beggars, and every kind of outcast. It is a place where history and civilization have been wiped away. There is no money, no taxation, no marriage, no census. Canudos is a cauldron for the revolutionary spirit in its purest form, a state with all the potential for a true, libertarian paradise—and one the Brazilian government is determined to crush at any cost.
In perhaps his most ambitious and tragic novel, Mario Vargas Llosa tells his own version of the real story of Canudos, inhabiting characters on both sides of the massive, cataclysmic battle between the society and government troops. The resulting novel is a fable of Latin American revolutionary history, an unforgettable story of passion, violence, and the devastation that follows from fanaticism.
| ISBN-13: | 9780312427986 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Picador |
| Publication date: | 07/22/2008 |
| Pages: | 576 |
| Product dimensions: | 8.24(w) x 5.80(h) x 0.98(d) |
The Swedish Academy’s mandate for the Nobel Prize in Literature is simple, with the annual prize going to a writer who “in the field of literature, produced the most outstanding work in an idealistic direction.” Because the pool of eligible writers spans the globe and includes winners of major awards like the Pulitzer, the Booker, […]
The Nobel Prize-winning writer turns in a tale of scandal and murder set against the backdrop of a corrupt Peruvian political scene.
