Top 10 Reasons Why Readers Recommend the Epic of "Brazil"

"Brazil" is the first work of fiction to bring to life Brazil and her epic history. A riveting family saga, brilliant and colorful, evoking perfectly the grand dream and the reality of Brazil.

Brazil! -- How a Gringo Writer Discovered a Great Country and its People

"One of my true joys is the knowledge that my epic of Brazil has come to mean so much to Brazilians living in the United States." -- Errol Lincoln Uys

When Boston writer Errol Lincoln Uys sat down to tell the story of Brazil, he had a key objective in mind: Avoid the stereotypical images of Brazil and its people.

"I rejoice in Carnival, samba, soccer," says Uys (The name is pronounced ‘Ace.’) "Like so many gringos, I knew little else about Brazil.  In writing my novel, I discovered one of the great adventures in human history -- the story of an extraordinary people who built the dynamic nation we see today."

Uys spent five years on the writing of Brazil, the newest edition now topping Kindle bestseller lists for Brazilian and South American items. A print edition of the book is also available.

Uys is often asked why he chose Brazil as subject. An immigrant to the United States from South Africa, where he was editor-in-chief of Reader's Digest, Brazil fascinated him since he was a boy.

“Those days my imagination was fired by eccentric foreigners like the engineer-explorer, Percy Fawcett, who vanished in Mato Grosso. By the time I came to write Brazil, my choice was more complex. My birthplace was South Africa, where laws and customs kept the races apart, a striking contrast to the racial melting pot of Brazil. I wanted to know what made the crucial difference in the development of the two countries.

"And then there was my new home, the United States, where I found an ignorance about Brazil at every level, from the apocryphal, 'They speak Spanish, don't they?' to the stereotypes of Brazilians. The more I read and studied, the stronger my desire to dispel this shallow view."

Uys's research took him to Portugal and Brazil, where he covered 20,000 kilometers -- almost entirely by bus!

“The writing of Brazil took five years. Like my fictional hero, Amador da Silva, a bandeirante, 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.’"

Just how successful Uys was on his quest to discover Brazil is best judged by what Brazilian readers say about Uys’s 800-page masterpiece devoted to their country, a spellbinding saga of two powerful families that spans five hundred years.

“I am Brazilian but have lived in the United States since the age of two. After reading your novel, I feel I can regain the culture that I lost — I feel more Brazilian! I don't believe I would ever have felt this strongly about my people if I hadn't read your book.” — Moises A. dos Santos

Says Wilson Martins, one of Brazil’s most eminent literary critics: “Errol Lincoln Uys is the first to write our national epic in all its decisive episodes – the first outsider to see Brazil with total honesty and sympathy. Descriptions like those of the war with Paraguay are unsurpassed in our literature and evoke the grand passages of War and Peace.” “Brazil is a classic which will be enjoyed by many in the years to come.” — Agenor Soares dos Santos

“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 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

“Your book gave me a completely new way of viewing Brazilian and Portuguese history. Suddenly everything seemed clear: The raw truthfulness that was the reality of those times and which never comes across so clearly or vividly in history books. Truly, Brazil is a masterpiece!” – Vasco Cartó

“One of my true joys is the knowledge that my epic of Brazil means so much to Brazilians living in the United States,” says Uys. “Time and again at book signings, Brazilian immigrants thank me for writing a book that can give their families an extraordinary understanding of the land of their heritage.”

Personally signed copies of the new edition of Brazil ($19.95 plus shipping) can be bought at the author’s website – www.erroluys.com - or via Amazon. The Kindle edition is ($9.99). Both editions come with a free Illustrated Guide to Brazil.

“The timing for a big book on Brazil is perfect,” says Uys. Brazil is ranked No 1 on Kindle’s Brazilian-related books, the e-book’s success driving strong sales of the print edition. “If I’ve one thing to be thankful for – and there are many – it’s that I never stopped believing passionately in Brazil.”

Brazil on Twitter -- An Epic Twist on a Spellbinding Saga

Boston writer Errol Lincoln Uys is twittering his 340,000-word epic novel "Brazil" in 140-character tweets or less for his followers on the social network

Boston writer Errol Lincoln Uys faces a staggering task: He is twittering his 340,000-word novel Brazil in 140-character tweets or less for his followers on the social network.

Brazil is the first epic micro-blogged on Twitter, each tiny “episode” contributing to daily installments of 60 to 100 tweets. The novel's Twitter address is @BrazilANovel

Uys (the name is pronounced “Ace”) is no stranger to monumental labors. Before writing Brazil, he worked with the late James A. Michener on The Covenant, the story of South Africa. Brazil is the first work of fiction to depict five centuries of that nation’s remarkable history told through the exploits of two Brazilian families.

The Twitter edition of Brazil couldn’t be more different than Uys’s original manuscript: He wrote it by hand, all 2,454 pages, his work taking five years, including a 20,000-kilometre trip by bus through Brazil. First published by Simon & Schuster, the internationally-acclaimed Brazil is also available in print and on Kindle. Uys’s readers can access a free online illustrated guide to Brazil, as well as his Brazilian journals and personal writing notes.

“It’s going to take 24,000 tweets, a year-plus of twittering,” says Uys. “Thanks be that I write short sentences!”

Brazil has been called “A Masterpiece – a totally new and original world for the reader-explorer to discover (L’Express, Paris.);” “Uys accomplished what no Brazilian author was able to do – Descriptions evoke the grand passages of War and Peace. (Jornal do Brasil);” “Uys recreates history entirely at ‘ground level,’ through the eyes and actions of an awesome cast of characters. (Publishers Weekly)”

For the world of Twitter, Brazil is a totally new literary trail to explore one tweet at a time @BrazilANovel

Brazil - Seeing the Light at the End of the Long Tail

How the Author of the Epic Novel "Brazil" is Making His Masterpiece a Best-Selling E-Book -- Learn the Secrets of a Successful Re-Launch in the Digital Age

It has been 25 years since the 1,000-page epic novel Brazil, by Boston writer Errol Lincoln Uys, rolled off the presses. A best-seller in Europe and in South America, Brazil was orphaned in the United States when its editor left Simon and Schuster only two months before its publication in April, 1986.

“Six weeks after publication I was told, ‘Brazil didn’t take off.’ I had one press interview and one radio interview before my book vanished from local shelves,” says Uys (pronounced ‘Ace.’)

In France, critics hailed the novel as a ‘masterpiece,’ a first printing of 14,000 copies sold out in three days, and the book went on to become a summer blockbuster. It went on to sell over 400,000 copies in France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Holland, Israel and Brazil.

Uys was buoyed as much by his international sales figures as by the words of eminent Brazilian literary critic, Wilson Martins, who wrote in the prestigious Jornal do Brasil:

“Uys has accomplished what no Brazilian author from José de Alencar to João Ubaldo Ribeiro, as well as others including Jorge Amado and Bernardo Guimarães was able to do. He is the first to write our national epic in all its truly decisive moments.

“Uys is the first to have the talent required for the task, to see us with total honesty and sympathy, the first to understand Brazil as an imaginary creation, coherent in its apparent inconsistencies, organic in its historic development. Descriptions like those of the war with Paraguay are unsurpassed in our literature and evoke the great passages of War and Peace.”

French reviewers were similarly enthusiastic about Uys’s work: “A masterpiece! Brazil has the look and feel of an enchanted virgin forest, a totally new and original world for the reader-explorer to discover,” crowed L'Express, Paris. “No one before knew how to bring to life Brazil and her history. Uys's characters are brilliant and colorful, combining elements of the best swashbuckler with those worthy of deepest reflection. Most stunning is that it took a South African, now a naturalized American, to evoke so perfectly the grand but interrupted dream that is Brazil,” lauded Le Figaro.

Uys began his writing career as a newspaperman on the Johannesburg Star and at the helm of the Cape edition of Post, then the country’s biggest weekly publication serving its African and mixed-race population. Following a stint in London, Uys became Editor-in-Chief of Reader’s Digest in South Africa. In 1977, he emigrated to the United States to work at the magazine’s international headquarters.

He met the American author James A. Michener through his work at the Digest and became assistant and researcher for Michener’s South African saga, The Covenant. Commenting on the two-year collaboration, Stephen J. May, Michener’s most recent biographer, concluded: “Michener committed a scarlet literary crime and used his celebrated influence in publishing to get away with it." – The affair is chronicled in an extensive literary archive on Uys’s website.

“’The road will always be longer and harder for some of us,’ Michener told me,” says Uys. “Controversial as our work on the South African book was, the experience convinced me that I could go out and dedicate myself to writing Brazil, as grand a theme as any that Michener undertook.”

Uys spent five years’ time on the writing of Brazil. He devoted a year to his research, including a 15,000-mile trek through Brazil, almost entirely by bus in order to get a feel for the vast country and its people at ground level. His journey took him into the Sertão, the arid backlands of the Northeast, and to the Casas Grandes of coastal Pernambuco. He voyaged the Amazon River from Belém to Manuas and explored southernmost Rondônia. He roamed the highlands of Minas Gerais and followed the route of the bandeirantes, the Brazilian pathfinders, from São Paulo to the south.

He returned to the United States at the end of October, 1981 to begin what would become a 750,000-word manuscript written entirely by hand. It took a further four years to complete his task seeking, he says, "a vision of the Brazilian El Dorado, not beyond the next hill or the river ahead but deep within the soul."

“Like my fictional hero, the bandeirante Amador Florés da Silva, I knew periods of utter loneliness and fear, times when I felt the sertão closing in on me but always, I broke through the barrier. I never lost the will to understand the Brazilian genius.’”

Uys needed to call on the same steely resolve after seeing his work founder in the United States market. Despite Brazil’s overseas triumph, his follow-up book proposals (including an epic on Mexico) were submitted to no avail. He was more successful with his non-fiction efforts, publishing Riding the Rails: Teenagers on the Move during the Great Depression, a companion volume to the Peabody Award-winning documentary made by Michael Uys and Lexy Lovell, his son and daughter-in-law

“If my spirits ever sank, I had only to re-read Wilson Martins’s review of Brazil,” says Uys. “Professor Martins truly understood the scope and nuances of my work. As time passed, many other readers who stumbled across the book sent me their own appreciations of Brazil.”

“I don’t believe I would ever have felt this strongly about my people if I hadn’t read your book – I feel more Brazilian!” wrote Moises dos Santos, a Brazilian living in the United States. Birdie Hope effused: “I read your entire book aloud to my husband on a series of trips we made — he drove as I read. We started in Mato Grosso, Brazil and finished somewhere in Kansas! The edition we read was an even 1,000 pages. Loved it! It's fabulous! Congratulations for writing it.”

In 2000, Uys signed a reprint agreement with Silver Spring Press, a small publisher in Connecticut. He added an afterword bringing the story up to Brazil’s 500th anniversary celebration. Seven years later, Uys’s French publisher also issued a new edition of Brazil (La Forteresse Verte.)

Brazil was on the ‘long tail’ at Amazon riding on that river sea with its vast schools of customers. Occasionally, sales of the new edition and secondhand copies sent Brazil rippling upward from the tip of the tail to somewhere in the fat middle. It was enough to satisfy this passionate author that someone, somewhere was dipping into his book and this encouraged him to keep paddling, no matter the current.

Then came Kindle, and for Brazil and its indefatigable promoter, a totally new world opened up. Having fought so long and hard for his masterpiece, Uys was ready for this new challenge. He took three decisive steps to launch the e-book, producing:

• Kindle Illustrated Guide to Brazil
Linked to the e-text is a unique and free online guide with more than 200 images and maps, providing an indispensable companion on a fictional journey through five hundred years of Brazilian history. Captions drawn from the narrative enhance the reader's sense of immersion in time and place. The novel guide is also interwoven with the author’s original Brazilian journal and working notes.

• Errol Lincoln Uys – A Writer’s Website
A wide-ranging personal website sharing the author’s archives, journals and working notes. The Making of Brazil and Michener’s Secret Covenant offer meticulously documented and intriguing insights into what went into the writing of these two books, from conceptual outline to final printed manuscript.

• Twitter Edition of Brazil
Uys is also tweeting his 340,000-word book in 140-(or fewer) character tweets for thousands of followers. Brazil is the first epic to be micro-blogged on Twitter, each tiny “episode” contributing to daily installments of 20 to 50 tweets. The novel’s Twitter handle is @BrazilANovel

The spectacular rise of the nation of Brazil over the past two decades couldn’t be timelier for Uys, as events like the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics loom on the horizon. Twenty-five years ago, people made light of ‘Brazil, land of the future and which always will be.’ This is no longer so today, as Brazil takes its place among emergent nations.

“The timing for a big book on Brazil is perfect,” says Uys. Brazil is ranked No 1 on Kindle’s Brazilian-related books, the e-book’s success driving strong sales of the print edition. “If I’ve one thing to be thankful for – and there are many – it’s that I never stopped believing passionately in Brazil.”

Brazil - A Totally New World for the Reader-Explorer to Discover

A masterpiece! Brazil has the look and feel of an enchanted virgin forest, a totally new and original world for the reader-explorer to discover. -- L'Express, Paris

Brazil, the epic novel by Errol Lincoln Uys, is a spellbinding saga of two powerful families that spans five hundred years and tells the story of a remarkable land and its people.

Just how successful Errol Lincoln Uys (pronounced 'Ace') was in capturing the Brazilian “thing” is best judged by what Brazilian readers say about Uys’s 800-page masterpiece devoted to their country and now available on Kindle and in print.

"Brazil] is a classic which will be enjoyed by many in the years to come.” — Agenor Soares dos Santos

“Brazil is a country of enormous contrasts and you had great insight in reflecting such differences through the lives of two fictional families, one from the north and one from the south. When I read your book the 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

“Your book gave me a completely new way of viewing Brazilian and Portuguese history. Suddenly everything seemed clear: The raw truthfulness that was the reality of those times and which never comes across so clearly or vividly in history books. Truly, Brazil is a masterpiece!” – Vasco Cartó

“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 multi-faceted history. The story line is gripping, easy to understand. My sincere congratulations. “ — Professor Max Justo Guedes

“Brazil is a monumental novel. It shows the juxtaposition of sensual/brutal Brazil...It is amazingly on target not only in the historical sense but insightful for the complex modern Brazil, principally the all-important extended family. A theme vividly illustrated in the first chapters and carried throughout the novel.” — Edson Nery da Fonseca

“I am Brazilian but have lived in the United States since the age of two. After reading your novel, I feel I can regain the culture that I lost — I feel more Brazilian! I don't believe I would ever have felt this strongly about my people if I hadn't read your book.” — Moises A. dos Santos

Says Wilson Martins, one of Brazil’s most eminent literary critics: “Errol Lincoln Uys is the first to write our national epic in all its decisive episodes – the first outsider to see Brazil with total honesty and sympathy. Descriptions like those of the war with Paraguay are unsurpassed in our literature and evoke the grand passages of War and Peace”

Brazil is available on Kindle and in Print. Personally signed copies of Brazil ($19.95 plus shipping) can be bought at the author’s website or via Amazon. The Kindle e-book edition ($9.99) comes with a free Illustrated Guide to Brazil, the Novel.

The free online guide that can be viewed at the author’s website includes three hundred images and maps; The Making of Brazil, the story of how Brazil was written from concept to final manuscript; and The Journey, the author’s travel journal and notes from a four-month 20,000-kilometer trek across Brazil.

What better way for the reader-explorer of an epic as vast as Brazil to discover a totally new and original world beyond stereotypes of samba and Carnival!

Brazil - COVER

ERROL LINCOLN UYS

BIOGRAPHY

"Teddy Bears, Tricksters, Tyrants...."

ERROL LINCOLN UYS

ERROL LINCOLN UYS