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3.5
Saving the Fire
ByPublisher Description
A new novel by the author of the Booker-shortlisted international bestseller, Crooked Plow, about tender family ties in Afro-Indigenous Brazil
Moisés lives with his father, Mundinho, and his sister, Luzia, in Tapera do Paraguaçu, a rural village in Bahia. His other siblings have left, and their mother vanished. Tapera, what remains of it, is a community of farmers, fishermen, and potters of Afro-Indigenous origin, overlooked from on high by a forbidding seventeenth century monastery, from which the church still rules over all they survey. With their mother long vanished, Luzia provides what she can by way of care and affection for her brother, but the long hours she works at the monastery, and the whispers about her strange powers, limit her capacity and she dreams of a family reunited and of liberty, of freedom from decades of suffering and decades of secrets.
Epic and lyrical, with the power to both enchant and outrage the reader, Saving the Fire shows us that the ghosts of a family's past are often indistinguishable from the shadows of a nation. Masterfully, Itamar Vieira Junior blends the intimate journeys of his characters with faithfully rendered elements of Brazilian life. It's a story permeated by the spectre of colonialism, the scars of which still show, and still ache.
Moisés lives with his father, Mundinho, and his sister, Luzia, in Tapera do Paraguaçu, a rural village in Bahia. His other siblings have left, and their mother vanished. Tapera, what remains of it, is a community of farmers, fishermen, and potters of Afro-Indigenous origin, overlooked from on high by a forbidding seventeenth century monastery, from which the church still rules over all they survey. With their mother long vanished, Luzia provides what she can by way of care and affection for her brother, but the long hours she works at the monastery, and the whispers about her strange powers, limit her capacity and she dreams of a family reunited and of liberty, of freedom from decades of suffering and decades of secrets.
Epic and lyrical, with the power to both enchant and outrage the reader, Saving the Fire shows us that the ghosts of a family's past are often indistinguishable from the shadows of a nation. Masterfully, Itamar Vieira Junior blends the intimate journeys of his characters with faithfully rendered elements of Brazilian life. It's a story permeated by the spectre of colonialism, the scars of which still show, and still ache.
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3.5
“I was so excited and honored to see that I had been selected to read this ARC. A beautiful story that navigates the complex family relationship through the years of intergenerational trauma left by poverty and colonialism. The writing was poetic and haunting. A type of story with characters that will stay with you for years. While I have not read Crooked Plows, this story does have similar characters but do not follow each other.
I loved Luiza's storyline and her evolving relationship with Moisés. However, I felt that Maria's storyline dragged a bit at times. I appreciated knowing what had happened to her, I felt myself itching to read more about Luiza and Moisés.
I loved the reoccurring imagery of fire and the firebirds as well as how the river played a role in being a mirror to the past. I was captivated by the ending of the story and the imagery of the final scene. The author navigates difficult subject with such elegance. As this was a translation, I can only imagine how this story must be read in its original language.
Thank you to Netgalley for the much appreciated ARC in exchange for my honest review”
About Itamar Vieira Junior
Itamar Vieira Junior was born in Salvador, Bahia, in 1979. He holds a doctorate in Ethnic and African Studies. Before Crooked Plow, he published a collection of short stories entitled The Executioner's Prayer, which was nominated for Brazil's biggest literary award, the Jabuti. Crooked Plow won the prestigious 2018 LeYa Award in Portugal and was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2024.
Other books by Itamar Vieira Junior
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