And you, sir, made this gift possible. I cannot thank you enough.

 — Hilquais (Keo) Cavalcanti

 

A truly amazing read

Brazil is the epic saga of a nation I knew little about until I got sucked into its history by this master story-teller. Not only is Brazil a "vast novel to tell the story of a vast country," as Publisher's Weekly notes, it covers a vast time span with a mighty cast of characters — many of whom leapt from the pages to imprint themselves so indelibly on my mind that I doubt I shall every forget them. Aruanã, the warrior prince of the Tupiniquin tribe; Amador da Silva,pioneer and bandeirante whom I both loved and hated; Secundus Proot the Dutch artist da Silva takes into the jungle so he can paint the natives in their natural environment; Padre Inácio Cavalcanti, the saintly Jesuit missionary, who spends his life laboring among and loving the native tribes.

A whole cavalcade of heroes and villains takes the reader on a roller coaster through history from 1490 before the Portuguese arrive right through to the beginning of the 21st century. There are slavers and soldiers, pioneers and fortune seekers, rebels and nation builders. Uys plunges us into the native cultures of both jungle and desert, embroils us in wars and slave rebellions, and threads the entire massive epic together with the stories, passions and endeavors of two families: the Cavalcantis and the da Silvas. Characters reappear as history forges onwards, leading us from one great event to another.

I am a reader who usually has four or five books of both fiction and non-fiction going simultaneously. Brazil is not one of those books. Brazil demands only book status. It is a truly amazing read. One that I cannot recommend highly enough.

— Beryl Singleton Bissel, author of The Scent of God, a Memoir

 

Brazil is a classic

A great work of fiction and a profound and scholarly knowledge of five centuries of Brazilian history. Your research truly depicts the life and soul of a people about whom not much has been written in the English language.

Brazil is a classic which will be enjoyed by many in the years to come.

— Agenor Soares dos Santos

 

I feel more "Brazilian!"

 

I am mesmerized

— Tony Rubolotta

 

A sweet innocent kid

Brazil draws me on as surely as the mystery of South America itself. Antonio Paciência, a sweet innocent kid playing with friends one minute and the next drug into the incredible realization that he was a bit too dark to be OK. My adopted son from Peru often would hold up his arm to mine and comment..."see how black I am." His father's family is from Brazil, his mother is from the upper Amazon River. He is a dark reddish copper with blue/black hair and near black eyes...he would have been sold to the highest bidder. He embodies the mixed heritage that is South America. Your writing spells it out in simple and often horrifying glimpses...the ingredients of how this mad and lusty world was formed. Thank you for this work, your love and feel of the land and its people shows through. We will return to the river next summer for a month of living in the jungle...I'll realize even more just where I am having read Brazil.

— Steve Heath

 

Spellbound

I am an avid reader of novels which try to humanize the history of a country by telling it through fictional family lines, whose lives are enmeshed is real, bona-fide historical events. But for a book truly to work, two pre-conditions must be in place: the characters in question should be drawn from dissimilar backgrounds, which depends mostly on the appeal of the country depicted (Michener's Hawaii springs to mind) plus the author must be highly conversant with its social history and have enough flair to sustain interest over the multitude of characters, episodes and, ultimately, pages.

Brazil and Errol Lincoln Uys fit the bill perfectly. The country is a fascinating amalgam of colonizers, native Indians and slaves and Uys has a compelling narrative style with down-to-earth dialogue, a first-rate selection of events to illustrate, leading to many a sub-climax, and a wealth of representative individuals to portray. You will be spellbound by the detail of the life and customs of the Tupi Indians, you will shake your head with disbelief at the Boy's Own adventures of the bandeirantes and you will be carried away by the treachery of the first failed movements for independence, mirroring those in the United States.

The section on the devastating Paraguayan War is my favorite in a continuous stream of highlights, with its cinematic sweep from bloody battlefields and wounded soldiers to corrupt dictators and their beautiful mistresses.

Just as a postscript: this book inspired me to learn Portuguese, travel to Brazil and study its history; I can not personally praise it more than that.

— John Malathronas, author of Brazil: Life, Blood and Soul

 

An outstanding novel

I enjoyed your outstanding novel Brazil as much as the great classics of Brazilian literature by Jorge Amado or Gilberto Freyre's Master's and Slaves and Mansions and Shanties.

I don't think that the late, great James A. Michener or Edward Rutherford, author of the well-written Sarum and Russka could have written about Brazil as well as you did.

— Craig H. Lockard

I was hooked

Your novel was the first book I ever read about Brazil. At the time I was a graduate student at Johns Hopkins University and was rethinking my desire to be an Africanist. John Russell Wood leant me his copy of your book and I was hooked. I subsequently went on to focus in Brazilian history for my academic career.

— Judy Bieber

From Kansas to Mato Grosso

I read your entire book aloud to my husband on a series of trips we made. — He drove; I read. — We started in Mato Grosso and finished somewhere in Kansas! The edition we read was an even 1,000 pages. Loved it! It's fabulous! Congratulations for writing it.

— Birdie Hope

 

First time travelers

Brazil is one of those volumes that I often loan to people who are headed to Brazil for the first time. I take it as an endorsement that the book was not returned to me the last time around, so I am very glad that a new edition is available.

— Charles H. Wood, Center for Latin American Studies, University of Florida

 

John Updike's Brazil compared

Brazil was recently recommended on an online discussion group on AOL about various Brazilian topics. I gave it my strongest recommendations and have learned that others have enjoyed reading it. This message is to convey my thanks for writing such an enjoyable book that treats its subject with the candor, vibrancy and affection that it deserves. This is all the more true when one compares your book with that travesty about Brazil written by John Updike, who didn't do his work on the subject matter. A deeply felt thank-you for doing yours.

— Doug Auwater

 

Like Michener's Source

I am a third of the way through Brazil and am nursing it along not wanting it to end. Thank you for giving such a great — and grand — overview of Brazil, its history and people. I am amazed as how MUCH Brazilian history is becoming clearer in the context of this historical fiction — Like Michener's Source helped me understand the Old Testament as nothing else I'd ever studied. Thanks for the hard work you put into Brazil. I wish more people who know and love Brazil knew what a great book it is.

— Nina Velasco

 

Brazilian contrasts

As a Brazilian, I want to compliment you for your success in writing a novel that so aptly represents my country, our traditions and our culture.

I was born in the city of São Paulo and my family is a traditional Paulista family. My father is descended on both sides from Portuguese people who arrived in Brazil in the 17th century. My mother comes from a very old Brazilian family, some from the interior of São Paulo state and some from Rio de Janeiro.

Brazil is a country of enormous contrasts and you had great insight in reflecting such differences in your book through the lives of two fictional families, one from the north and one from the south. When I read your book some of those feelings I had about the contrasting reality we face daily in Brazil were translated into words. I felt that a puzzle was finally put into place. I hope that writing this book has given you as much pleasure as I had in reading it.

  — Maria Pereira de Queiroz Brandão Teixeira

 

A beautiful work

A beautiful work! It took more than a month to read your book, but I enjoyed every moment. It's one of the most solid researches I've seen covering five centuries of Brazil's multifaceted history. The story line is gripping, easy to understand. My sincere congratulations.

— Max Justo Guedes

 

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