Errol Lincoln Uys

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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 de 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

 

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Top 10 Reasons Why Readers Recommend Brazil

A Brazilian's

Appreciation of Brazil

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YOUR PERSONALLY

AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF THE PRINT EDITION

 

KINDLE EDITION*

 

 

Read an Excerpt

The Paraguayan War

Part I

Part II

Part III

Read an Excerpt

A Brazilian Boy's

Long Walk to Slavery

 

BRAZIL THE MAKING OF A NOVEL An intimate look at the intellectual and artistic journey in the creation of Brazil

LA FORTERESSE VERTE

20th Anniversary Edition

Les Presses de la Cite, Paris

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Working with

James A. Michener

 

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.

KINDLE EDITION*

ILLUSTRATED GUIDE TO THE NOVEL

Slave Market at Rio de Janeiro

A free online guide with a wealth of photos and illustrations giving a unique insight into the novel and its creativity.

I searched for the story of Brazil for five years, a literary pathfinder in quest of the epic of the Brazilian people. In this guide, I share my private journal kept on a mighty journey of twenty thousand kilometers across the length and breadth of a vast country.

Discover the magic that goes into the making of a monumental novel with a first draft of three-quarters of million words written in the old-fashioned way, by hand! A quest driven by a passion for writing and storytelling.

 

Links to the Illustrated Kindle Guide to Brazil can be found at the end of each Book Section enhancing the reader's enjoyment of a spellbinding saga "with the look and feel of an enchanted virgin forest, a totally new and original world for the reader-explorer to discover."

 

* Don't have a Kindle? View the Illustrated Guide on the Website

 

• TOP 10 REASONS WHY READERS RECOMMEND BRAZIL

• A BRAZILIAN'S APPRECIATION OF BRAZIL

           PROFESSOR WILSON MARTINS, JORNAL DO BRASIL

• WHAT JAMES A. MICHENER  SAID ABOUT BRAZIL

"Since Brazil is larger than the United States, it merits a full-length novel which richly dramatizes its remarkable history.

"Errol Lincoln Uys, a distinguished writer, has written such a book. His characters and the flow of his narrative are compelling, and he has produced a novel that both captivates and instructs."   Read More >>>

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 de 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 principal 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

Contact me

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.

KINDLE E-BOOK