If you think a trip to Brazil is an invitation to the best party ever, you are correct! Colorful, sizzling, breathtakingly beautiful, and populated with friendly people (and amazing animals), Brazil is the place for good times, good food, good drinks, and good energy.
We begin with the Amazon, a vast rainforest and river teeming with magical creatures like pink dolphins, bioluminescent mushrooms, and — yes — piranhas and anacondas. (Shout-out to the friendly capybaras!)
Brazil’s cities offer something for everyone — the capital city of Brasília’s futuristic architecture, Sao Paulo’s international food scene, and Rio’s seductive combo of city sights and sparkling beaches. (There’s a reason we’ve been singing about the tall and tan, young and lovely girl from Ipanema for decades.)
While you’re surely ready to dance the samba and drink a few caipirinhas, did you know Brazil is also the place for award-winning cheese? Or a spring-fed pool that feels like champagne? Or ‘chestnuts from Para’?
In this episode, we explore Brazil’s rainforest and urban jungles, dig into the fascinating (really!) story of Brazil nuts, and meet one of the world’s finest Emperors. Then we recommend five great books that took us there on the page, including a tragi-comic family saga, a literary mystery mixed with magical realism, a gritty Rio crime novel starring a bookish detective, a graphic novel about beginnings and endings, and a Gothic-tinged coming-of-age story.
Here are the books about Brazil we recommend on the show:
The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao by Martha Batalha, Eric M.B. Becker (translator)
Ways to Disappear by Idra Novey
The Silence of the Rain by Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza, Benjamin Moser (translator)
Daytripper by Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba
Flesh and Bone and Water by Luiza Sauma
For a complete roundup of all the books we recommend, plus a full transcript and the other cool stuff we talked about, visit the Episode 66 show notes.
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