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Pre-order. Available Jan 19 2027
$33.16

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Description

'Dramatic, wildly colourful and continuously interesting' NEW YORK TIMES
'A veritable linguistic tour de force' MARIO VARGAS LLOSA

In 1956, Brazilian author João Guimarães Rosa published what would become his magnum opus, Grande Sertao: Veredas. South American literary critics were astounded by this ground-breaking ode to the Brazilian backlands, declaring it the Brazilian Ulysses. Guimarães Rosa's astounding work would take the Latin American literary world by storm.

Originally translated as The Devil to Pay in the Backlands in 1963, Vastlands is a single sweeping retrospective monologue from the point of view of Riobaldo, a former jagunço – a mercenary or bandit – recounting his life in the backlands of inland Brazil. Raised in poverty by a single mother, Riobaldo receives a basic education before forging his own path within the deeply embedded machismo of the backlands, buoyed by his incredible military abilities and sheer tenacity. His story is a twisting narrative of fraught longing and the flux of power in a lawless state, of old feuds and new betrayals, exiles, Faustian pacts and precarious hierarchy.

Now, over sixty years since its only English translation and seventy years since its initial publication in Portuguese, multi-award-winning literary translator Alison Entrekin renders Guimarães Rosa's feat of linguistic engineering in kaleidoscopic prose, offering the key to this beloved yet often-overlooked masterpiece to a new generation of readers.

Product details

Published Jan 19 2027
Format Ebook (Epub & Mobi)
Edition 1st
Pages 544
ISBN 9781037201936
Imprint Bloomsbury Publishing
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Author

João Guimarães Rosa

João Guimarães Rosa (born 27 June 1908, Cordisburg…

Translator

Alison Entrekin

Alison Entrekin is an award-winning Australian lit…

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