SSoP Podcast Episode 66 — Brazil: Sugarloaf, Samba, and Sao Paulo

This is a transcription of Brazil: Sugarloaf, Samba, and Sao Paulo

David: Hello. Welcome to Strong Sense of Place.

Melissa: In each episode, we focus on one destination and discuss what makes it different than any other place on Earth.

David: Then we recommend five books we love that took us there on the page.

Melissa: I’m Melissa Joulwan.

David: I’m David Humphreys.

David: We’re going around the world one great read at a time. Thanks for joining us.

[cheerful music]

David: Welcome to Strong Sense of Place. Today we get curious about Brazil. You might be surprised to hear that the world’s second largest Oktoberfest is happening in a town in Brazil right now. That town is called Blumenau. It’s a delightful import from a bunch of Germans that emigrated to southern Brazil in the late 19th century. Somewhere between 500 to 700,000 visitors are, right now, eating bratwurst and Spätzle, washing it down with a nice beer, and thinking about who they’re going to crown queen of the Oktoberfest.

David: Prost to all our Brazilian friends!

David: In Two Truths and a Lie, we’re going to talk about the dramatic death of the second and last Emperor of Brazil. It’s probably not what you’re thinking. Then we’ll talk about five books we love. I’ve got a book that starts with an old lady smoking a cigar in an almond tree. And then she disappears.

David: But first, Mel’s going to bring us up to speed with the Brazil 101.

Melissa: Before I jump into my 101, I have to thank two of our listeners — Brandy C and Rebecca M. Both have a personal connection to Brazil, and they generously shared their insights with me. Thank you, Brandy and Rebecca!

Melissa: Let’s get oriented. Visualize South America. On the Atlantic side of the continent is the enormous triangle of Brazil. It’s so large, it shares borders with every South American country except Chile and Ecuador.

Melissa: Long before there was Amazon.com, there was the Amazon. It’s both a rainforest and a river populated by seemingly magical creatures, including pink dolphins; piranhas; glow-in-the-dark mushrooms, and fish that leap from the water to eat fruit from the trees.

Melissa: Before we go deeper into the Amazon jungle, a very brief history of Brazil.

Melissa: In 1494, Spain and Portugal signed a treaty — brokered by the Pope — that divvied up the world oustide Europe. They drew a vertical line through the Atlantic Ocean. Spain got everything to the west; Portugal got everything to the east. Six years later, a Portuguese nobleman and explorer named Pedro Álvares Cabral set sail for India. He and his crew took a detour toward South America first and landed in what is now the vibrant beach town of Porto Seguro.

Melissa: Three decades later, Portugal formed its first colony in Brazil. They discovered gold reserves inland and built plantations along the coast. Soon enslaved people from Africa were taken west to work in the sugarcane fields, while gold and diamonds were sent east, back to Europe.

Melissa: In 1789, the native Brazilians and enslaved people had had enough. They rebelled. That revolt was quashed, but they kept trying. On September 7, 1822, Brazil declared its independence from Portugal. The new Brazil was ruled by kings for about six decades until military leaders and landowners expelled the last one — Dom Pedro II ‘the Magnanimous’ — and Brazil became a federal republic.

Melissa: We’re going to depart the Amazon for other climes and urban areas, but first, I need to talk about a few more animals that make their home in the rainforest. I apologize in advance for the numbers I’m about to say. There will not be a quiz afterward, but I want to share the sheer volume of species found in the Amazon. There are more than 600 mammals, 450 reptiles, 1600 birds, 1500 fish, and… you are not ready for this last number: 100,000 kinds of insects.

Melissa: A few examples of each, just for fun: The internet is in love with capybaras. And I get it. They’re like a rat the size of a dog that got a friendly makeover. They have stubby noses and black stuffed-animal eyes with long eyelashes. But! I feel like you need to know about the giant river otter — which is kind of at the other end of the cuddly spectrum. The giant otter has the personality of a wolverine and is almost as large as a jaguar. And these otters hunt in packs! I saw a National Geographic video of a bevy of otters throwing down with two jaguars. It was intense. These are not the hand-holding, sleepy otters of TikTok.

Melissa: You know what else is in the water? Anacondas! These massive water boas live 10 years. And they’re full-on carnivores. They weigh as much as a grand piano, and they’re as long as a London bus. Apparently, they also like the flavor of Jennifer Lopez.

Melissa: In other creepy crawly news: Hundreds of new insects have been discovered in the Amazon’s canopy and National Geographic has amazing photos of the bugs. Some are beautiful, some look like steampunk contraptions. I’ll put a link in show notes. But the insect that grabbed my attention is the assassin bug. It looks like a beetle, so for me, not so scary. But! They coat themselves in dead ant carcasses to mask the scent of their pheromones, then use their long, piercing proboscis to feed on ants and bees. They can also snatch flying bees out of the air with their sticky legs.

Melissa: OK! Let’s get out of the jungle. Brazil has a slew of fantastic cities that pulse with stunning architecture, irresistible music, delicious food, and must-see art.

Melissa: For my architecture nerds, we’ll start with the capital of Brasília. The city was conceived as a workable utopia to replace the urban, organic jumble of Rio de Janeiro. Brasília was built in 1960 and looks like a collaboration between Frank Lloyd Wright and George Jetson’s architect. The outside of the Metropolitan Cathedral looks like a spiky 1960s fruit basket turned upside down. Inside, it’s infused with the light shining through a blue, green, and white glass ceiling. Another building, a cultural center, is made of slabs of curving concrete, and the National Congress is two tall, thin rectangular skyscrapers rising out of an enormous reflecting pool and massive green lawn. Opinions on the city are split. The utopian vision didn’t pan out exactly as planned. The city center is crisp and clean, but it’s very car-centric and isolated from everyday life. But a Brazilian architect said, ‘When I think about Brasília, I’m still in disbelief regarding the ability to realize a dream of such scale and ambition… it makes me hopeful that with the right political environment, a brighter future is possible and achievable.’ I found some great videos about the original plans; I’ll put them in show notes.

Melissa: Now we head south and to the coast. To Rio de Janeiro. If cities were fruit, Rio would be a ripe mango, bursting with juice that also, magically, plays samba music when you cut it open. Rio is tucked in between forested mountains and sparkling beaches.

Melissa: Sugarloaf, that ginormous rock rising out of the ocean, stands guard at the mouth of Guanabara Bay. You can either take a cable car or walk to the top for spectacular views of the city.

Melissa: And the enormous, iconic Christ the Redeemer statue is perched on top of Corcovado mountain, overlooking the city with arms outstretched as if to say, ‘Look at how awesome it is down there.’

Melissa: Rio is where you’ll find the legendary Copacabana and Ipanema beaches where you can splash in the waves while taking in the view of the spectacular mountains all around. To cool off, you can get a coconut from a beachside vendor. They’ll brandish a machete, hack the top off a fresh coconut, plunk in a straw, and hand you the most refreshing drink you can imagine.

Melissa: For a different Rio experience, you can visit Santa Teresa. That’s a hillside, cobblestoned neighborhood with cute yellow open-air trolleys, candy-colored Victorian mansions, and artsy shops. When you need a break, you can enjoy coffee pastries at the Confeitaria Colombo, an art nouveau, jewel box café built in 1894.

Melissa: A bit further south is the stylish city of São Paulo. It’s simultaneously very Brazilian and cosmopolitan — home to immigrant communities from Portugal, Lebanon, Syria, Italy, and Japan. That is like secret code that translates to ‘fantastic food and drinks are found here.’

Melissa: Starting with the iconic Brazilian cocktail, the caipirinha. If you’ve never had the pleasure, it’s a refreshing, sweet-tart blend of fermented sugarcane liquor called cachaça, fresh muddled lime, and cane sugar.

Melissa: According to legend, the drink started in sugarcane fields when farmers mixed lime, garlic, and honey with cachaça to ward off the Spanish flu. Eventually, the garlic and honey were edited out of the recipe and replaced with sugar to make a cocktail that inspired Anthony Bourdain to say, ‘This alone is an argument for the greatness of this country.’

Melissa: Word on the street is that a caipirinha is the perfect go-along for another iconic Brazilian recipe: Feijoada. When I asked our Brazilian friends the best thing to eat in Brazil, this was their first choice. It’s a spicy black bean stew, made with chunks of pork and smoked meats, simmered for hours, then served with rice, sliced oranges, and a condiment called Farofa. That’s a sort of edible fairy dust made with butter and toasted cassava flour. Feijoada is usually eaten on Saturday or Sunday afternoons — perfect for a lazy, family day — but in São Paulo, it’s also available on Wenesdays. Kind of a mid-week pick-me-up. The dish is so popular, in 1978, the singer Chico Buarque wrote ‘Feijoada Completa,’ a love song about cooking and eating feijoada. It namedrops Farofa (FAAH-ro-fa), and the chorus is ‘and let’s add water to the beans.’

Melissa: While in Brazil, you’ll also want to try fish stew with coconut milk, cheese puffs made with cassava flour, empanadas, and a dish called little kisses made from sweetened condensed milk and coconut.

Melissa: For our final stop, we’ll head north, out of the cities, to Jalapão State Park. It’s an otherwordly place with waterfalls, sand dunes, and natural pools fed by springs. According to National Geographic, swimming in it feels ‘a bit like floating in a pool of champagne’ that’s threaded with fine pink sand. It’s not easy to get to — you have to fly to Palma, then drive about 6 hours on unpaved roads but it’s a pretty special place. If you can’t get there, Brazil has lots of other natural pools you can splash in. I’ll put links in show notes.

Melissa: There’s so much more I could have shared about Brazil. Like Brazilians’ passionate obsession with football or the martial art Capoeira which is half combat, half dance. Or the PARTY that is Carnaval in Rio.

Melissa: But I will leave you with this. A bit north of Sao Paulo is a town called Alagoa. Until a few years ago, it was just a sleepy little village in the mountains with a population of only 2700. But 135 of those people are cheese-makers. And in 2021, Brazilian cheeses won 57 medals at the world cheese competition — the Mondial du Fromage — making Brazil second only to France in the world of delicious cheese. The first cheese in this area of Brazil was made by an Italian shoemaker named Paschoal Poppa who arrived from Europe with a dream and a recipe for parmesan. Today, you can get mascarpone, smoked cheeses, and the gold-medal winning blue cheese with apricots and nuts that looks like a wedding cake.

Melissa: If you weren’t already falling in love with Brazil, just think about the fact that it has a CHEESE TOWN. That’s the Brazil 101.

David: [music: now two truths and a lie]

David: I’m about to say three statements. Two of them are true. Mel doesn’t know which is the lie. First statement: Capuchin monkeys in Brazil have figured out that they can crack the shells of Brazil nuts by throwing them in front of oncoming trucks.

David: Second statement: In Brazil, you can get out of jail faster if you read books. And third: The last Emperor of Brazil was deposed so quietly that some people in the room didn’t realize it had happened.

David: OK! One at a time. Capuchin monkeys in Brazil have figured out that they can crack the shells of Brazil nuts by throwing them in front of oncoming trucks.

David: Yeah, I made that one up. I am surprised to be saying this next sentence. Brazil nuts are pretty interesting.

David: First, they’re not usually farmed. Most of the Brazil nuts you’ve ever eaten have been gathered by Indigenous people from the floor of a rainforest. Brazil nuts grow in tall, old trees with huge root structures. Those trees are pollinated by a specific kind of bee. Those bees require something like an ancient rainforest to survive. As a result of all of that, brazil nuts are impractical for farming. So they’re gathered.

David: Gathering Brazil nuts is dangerous work!In addition to being in the middle of an ancient rain forest, brazil nuts grow 10 - 25 at a time in a hard, woody shell — kind of like a coconut. And they’re heavy. Brazil nut pods have fallen from a tree, smacked someone on the head, and killed them.

David: That is not the only way you can kill someone with a Brazil nut.

David: Brazil nuts are loaded with selenium. In low doses — like a nut or two a day — that can help someone with thyroid issues, for instance. But in large doses — six or more nuts a day for a while — you could eat your way into kidney failure and a weak heart. Back in the day, there was a House episode about a CIA agent overdosing on Brazil nuts.

David: Finally, Brazil nuts are not called Brazil nuts in Brazil. They’re called a phrase that translates to “chestnuts from Para.” Para is a state in Brazil. No word on what they call those nuts in Para.

David: Second: In Brazil, you can get out of jail faster if you read books.

David: That’s true. So, prison in Brazil is harsh. They’re overcrowded, which leads to food, sanitation, and medical care problems. There are reports of housing 40 prisoners in a room that’s designed for 10, that kind of thing. There’s a lot of gang activity. That brings drug trade and corruption. The Brazilian prison system has attracted attention from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. But it’s an endemic problem. There aren’t any easy solutions. But people keep working on it.

David: About a decade ago, Brazil’s federal corrections program started a program. If inmates read a book and submit a properly written book report, they would get four days off of their sentence, for a maximum of 48 days a year.

David: Only certain books qualify for the program. And only certain inmates.

David: The program has had some success. On one hand, reading expands empathy and critical thinking, and it provides a path to personal growth. On the other hand, many inmates can’t read well, and they get frustrated.

David: But, ten years later, the program is still growing. Last year, the agency responsible for the security of federal prisons added over a quarter of a million books to support the program. If you’re curious, we’ll link to some stories about that in the show notes.

David: And third: The last Emperor of Brazil was deposed so quietly that some people in the room didn’t realize it had happened.

David: This story starts with the first emperor of Brazil. There were only two. The first is currently known as Pedro I, although he was presumably just Pedro then. Or, you know, “your imperial majesty.”

David: He might have been a hothead. Pedro is primarily known for liberating Brazil from Portugal. He did that in 1822, and then quickly became Emperor. But he liberated Brazil from the rule of his own father. Pedro I was the son of the King of Portugal. ‘Get out of here, Dad! You never understood me!’

David: Pedro was Emperor for less than a decade. Things got hot between his people and a group called the Liberal Party. Pedro believed the monarch should be free to set national policies and government direction. The Liberals thought: Eh … what if we did that with elected officials? It got bad enough, that, early one April morning in 1831, around 3 am, Pedro wrote a note. He gave it to a messenger and said, ‘Here you have my act of abdication; I’m returning to Europe, and leaving a country that I loved very much and still love.’ He and most of his family got on a British warship off the coast of Rio. He would never see Brazil again.

David: One of the members of his family that he left behind was his son, Pedro II. When his father left, Pedro II immediately became the Emperor of Brazil. He was five. Pedro was a very serious young man. He studied endlessly. Because he knew he had the burden of the crown. Wikipedia says, quote: ‘His experiences with court intrigues and political disputes during [his childhood] greatly affected his later character; he grew into a man with a strong sense of duty and devotion toward his country and his people, yet increasingly resentful of his role as monarch.’

David: He would go on to be a hero of free speech, civil rights, science, and education. He was an abolitionist. At the time, Brazil had a healthy slave trade. They were protected by politics and big money. He would chip away at that power and ultimately lose his title fighting that fight, but we’re not there yet.

David: Pedro II was also a reader, and a man of ideas. His castle had three libraries, with 60,000 books. He spoke 14 languages. He traveled most of the world. He was also Brazil’s first photographer, because he bought a daguerreotype camera in 1840. He built an astronomical observatory, because he was curious. He said, ‘Were I not an Emperor, I would like to be a teacher.’ He funded schools, research laboratories, and opera houses.

David: He was friends with the leading minds of his day — mail buddies with Louis Pasteur, Alexander Graham Bell, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Charles Darwin said of him: ‘The Emperor does so much for science, that every scientific man is bound to show him the utmost respect.’

David: And he was a good ruler. He led Brazil into a time of power. He was loved by his people. So, where did it all go wrong? He’s in his mid-50s, and he’s getting sick. One of his doctors recommends a trip to Europe for medical treatment. Pedro leaves his oldest in charge, his daughter. Her name is Isabel. And he gets himself to Europe.

David: Isabel takes a look around, finds herself running the place, and says, ‘You know, here’s something I’ve always wanted to do.’ And she frees the slaves. When he found out, Pedro was delighted. He’s described as having tears in his eyes, and, with a weak voice, saying,’Great people! Great people!’

David: Months later, he regains some health. Pedro II returns to Brazil. He was met as a returning hero. One historian wrote, ‘The whole country welcomed him with an enthusiasm never seen before. From the capital, from the provinces, from everywhere, arrived proofs of affection and veneration.’

David: But. Pedro pissed off the old slave owners. In retaliation, they launched a coup d’etat. One day in 1889, they walked into the castle and demanded that Pedro II abdicate. Some people witnessed this meeting — saw it with their own eyes — and did not realize they were watching a rebellion. Pedro left quietly. Later, he said, ‘If it is so, it will be my retirement. I have worked too hard — and I am tired. I will go rest then.’ Like his father, he left the country he loved for Europe and never saw it again.

David: He died two years later, in Paris, at 66. The last thing he ever said was, ‘May God grant me these last wishes—peace and prosperity for Brazil.’ While his people were cleaning up his room and preparing his body, they found a sealed package. They opened it. It was a bag of dirt. Attached was a note from Pedro that said, ‘It is soil from my country. I wish it to be placed in my coffin in case I die away from my fatherland.’

David: In 1921, his body was returned to Brazil. A national holiday was declared. According to one witness, the ‘elderly people cried. Many knelt down. All clapped hands. There was no distinction between republicans and monarchists. They were all Brazilians.’ That’s two truths and a lie.

Melissa: My first recommendation is The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao by Martha Batalha, translated from Portuguese by Eric M.B. Becker.

Melissa: This is a slender family saga, just 240 pages, set in 1940s Rio de Janeiro. It’s a bit like a literary soap opera, and I mean that as a sincere compliment. Two sisters — Euridice and Guida — are at the heart of the story, and we meet the web of people who come in and out of their lives.

Melissa: The outline of the plot isn’t unusual — but the way the author Marta Batalha introduces the characters and their antics makes it feel like you live next door and are part of their neighborhood.

Melissa: So, here’s the setup: Euridice is the dutiful daughter. Her elder sister Guida is the glamorous rebel. And the two are devoted to each other. When Guida falls passionately in love with the wrong boy, they run away together, leaving Euridice to mourn the loss of her sister and fulfill all her parent’s expectations for how a good daughter behaves. One day, years later, Guida returns with a wild story of what she’s been up to. Her reappearance throws everyone’s lives into disarray again — and then they all muddle their way back to being a family.

Melissa: Pretty standard heroine’s journey. But! There are a bunch of things that make this book special.

Melissa: First: Euridice. It’s impossible not to love her. She’s bright and inquisitive, prone to falling in love with things that interest her, so she gets obsessed with playing the recorder, reading, cooking and writing recipes, dressmaking. I related to that so hard. When she has a speech impediment, she tackles it. When she learns to sew, she becomes the most sought-after dressmaker in town. She’s good at everything she tries. But the people around her — especially her boring husband — try to suck the life out of her. It’s very crabs in a bucket. She’s good at everything she tries EXCEPT standing up for herself.

Melissa: Which brings me to the next thing I loved about this book: the narrator. The narrator is mostly invisible, but occasionally, it gets a little voice-y in a way I really enjoyed. A great example is at the beginning of chapter four. In the first three chapters, we’ve met Euridice’s boring, stifling husband and read the story of their courtship and marriage. We’ve learned about her super nosy, gossipy neighbor, and gotten the sad backstory of Euridice’s much put-upon housemaid. We’ve also been through the roller coaster rise and fall of Euridice’s dress-making business.

Melissa: Then the narrator says, ‘This is the story of Euridice Gusmao, the woman who could have been.’ I like when the narrator is, like, ‘Hey! I’m telling you a story over here.’

Melissa: Then later, they say, ‘We haven’t yet mentioned someone who has played an important role in Euridice’s life since the very beginning. We’re talking about the Side of Euridice that Didn’t Want Euridice to Be Euridice.’

Melissa: That phrase, ‘the Side of Euridice that Didn’t Want Euridice to Be Euridice’ is capitalized like a title. Like a terrible nickname for our heroine. As more of Euridice’s story unfolds, we see all the ways her alter ego holds her back from embracing her innate awesomeness.

Melissa: I said earlier that the book felt like a soap opera. Again: compliment. The plot has very sharp peaks and valleys, and incorporates all of the seven types of stories: Overcoming The Monster, Rags To Riches, The Quest, Voyage & Return, Comedy, Tragedy, and Rebirth. But it’s all done with a light touch.

Melissa: It’s a daisy chain of escapades. Every character warrants a back story — and each one we meet leads us to the next. So we understand how they all got here and why the do the things they do. You can’t understand Euridice and Guida without knowing the people they know and all that came before.

Melissa: Despite the heavy elements — mean teachers, terrible husbands, judgmental family, broken hearts — it’s a fun read and and a little frothy. I think because of the narrator’s voice and Euridice’s spirit. Even when she’s down, there’s still a flicker of that curious little girl inside her.

Melissa: Reviews describe this book as skewering the patriarchy, and it does. But what I felt the most was all of the characters’ desires to be seen. Euridice, Guida, the housemaid, the nosy neighbor, Euridice’s parents, the kind man who runs the stationary store. They all want to be recognized as human and, by extension, to be loved.

Melissa: That’s something we can all relate to.

Melissa: That’s ‘The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao’ by Martha Batalha — and shout out to Eric M.B. Becker for his beautiful, sparkly translation.

Melissa: If you read this book, I recommend you enjoy two things I found online: a Brazil travelogue video shot in the 1940s and a collection of photos from that era. Both put me right in that world with Euridice and Guida. I’ll put the links in show notes.

David: My first book is ‘Ways to Disappear’by Idra Novey. This book starts with an older woman. She’s maybe in her sixties. She’s a famous Brazilian novelist. One day she climbs up a tree — an almond tree — with a suitcase and a cigar. And she disappears.

David: It sounds like magical realism. And it kind of is. But it’s maybe the shallowest shade of it. As a reader, we’re led to believe that this old woman was sitting in a tree with a suitcase and a cigar — she had a short conversation with someone who’s a bit worried, she seemed fine — and that was the last time anyone ever saw her.

David: The very next chapter — which comes quickly, the chapters are very short in this book — in the very next chapter, it’s five days later. And the woman’s English-language translator is starting to worry about her. The author’s name is Beatrix. The translator’s name is Emma. Emma is American. She lives in Pittsburgh.

The second chapter starts:

Over rice and beans in front of the TV, the Portuguese translator Emma Neufeld told her boyfriend that she was nervous. Her author hadn’t answered her emails in over a week.

Miles told her she spent too much time fretting over unanswered emails. His preferred subject of late was when they might get married, and whether they had to invite everyone in their Road Runners group. He said he was leaning toward an outside venue regardless.

Emma, on the other hand, was leaning toward never.

She had yet to express this.

David: Emma calls Beatrix’s daughter. Emma gets no answers from her. So Emma decides to buy tickets and fly to Rio. Now. Right now. One of the great things about this book is that it’s written so that you’re aware of some of the character’s motives, even when they might not be. Is Emma going to Rio because she’s worried about Beatrix? … Yes. … Is she also avoiding her own life? Absolutely. … Is Emma consciously aware of this? Probably not.

David: So. The translator, Emma, gets down to Rio. She meets Beatrix’s adult children — a son and a daughter. They start looking for Beatrix and, without spoiling too much, they find trouble together. It’s quickly revealed that Beatrix had some secrets she wasn’t sharing with any of those people, and those secrets left her with some significant debt and angry and armed people in her wake.

David: So we wind our way into a story that’s mostly a certain kind of coming-of-age. There’s a family story and stuff to say about art and how we want to be understood. There’s a crime story, but it’s got a little bit of a playful vibe to it. The author herself called it, quote “a thriller with some theories about translation.”

David: The author of this book, Idra Novey, is a translator and a poet. Both of those things resonate loudly through this book.

David: She has a lot to say about the details and spirit of translation and the relationship between a translator and a writer.

David: Novey’s writing is very succinct. She writes, ‘She had yet to express this,’ and I was like, ‘Yup, I’m caught up on that relationship.’

David: She’s also very good at expressing subtle feelings. Like the dream-like quality of traveling to someplace new. How pleasant that can be, and also how sometimes alarming it is. Or there’s this bit, when the daughter is trying to warn Emma about something.

I’m aware of that possibility, Emma said, though in truth she was aware of it only the way a person might hear a faint rumble of thunder on a dry day and find its menacing sound exciting without believing there was any real reason to go inside.

David: There’s some curious stuff about who knows a novelist better: a daughter who’s never read a word of her work, or the translator who knows every word, but who’s only ever spoken with her in a business context. … Do you know someone better if you grew up with them, or if you only know their dreams and nightmares? They’re both large but incomplete slices. But maybe one is more accurate than the other?

David: Idra Novey is probably best known for her last novel. That was called ‘Take What You Need.’ That is also about a family involved with art; it’s set in Appalachia. It was one of the best books of 2023 for The New Yorker and NPR. She also has a book of poems that just came out in September. That’s, ‘Soon and Wholly.’ This book through is also a delightful read. It’s ‘Ways to Disappear’by Idra Novey.

Melissa: My second recommendation is ‘The Silence of the Rain’ by Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza, translated from Portuguese by Benjamin Moser. This is a crime novel set in modern Rio de Janeiro, starring an unusual detective named Inspector Espinosa.

Melissa: The story starts with a bang. Literally. A wealthy business man very carefully puts his office in order and walks to his car in the parking garage with his briefcase in his hand. He gets in the car, calmly smokes a cigarette, and then shoots himself. But when the police arrive, the gun and briefcase are gone. They immediately assume it’s a robbery gone wrong.

Melissa: But we know it’s not. The story becomes both a whodunnit and a howdunnit because throughout, we know some things the cops don’t but we don’t know everything until the very end.

Melissa: At the helm of the police investigation is Inspector Espinosa of Rio’s First Precinct.

Melissa: Espinosa is a lonely divorcé who lives in a quiet corner of Copacabana — That’s the neighborhood at the foot of Sugarloaf.

Melissa: It’s no accident that he’s named Espinosa. In case you’re not up on 17th-century philosophy, Spinoza was a philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish heritage. He argued that God is not the creator of the world, but that the world is part of God… that logic and reason are the best ways to gain knowledge… and that there’s a difference between the physical and mental realms. Our Inspector often waxes philosophical. He’s simultaneously world-weary and tender-hearted. At one point he says, ‘I don’t like October, and I don’t like Sunday. October was starting on a Sunday. The only thing worse would be if Monday fell on a Sunday. The rain started up again, and the best thing to do was wait around until I could eat the second serving of pasta.’

Melissa: Inspector Espinosa also loves books. On Friday afternoons, he takes himself to the same used bookshop to pick up something to read over the weekend. His apartment is overrun with books — to the point that his cleaning lady is about to go on strike because all the books are preventing her from doing her job. So one Saturday, he starts organizing. This is what it says:

‘He started gathering the books piled by the armchair and the sofa, on top of the table, by the bed, on the bedside tables, and on the chairs. He intended to make bigger piles along one of the walls… It proved to be slow going because he kept stopping to reread pages he happened across. By eleven, he’d built a shelfless bookcase by lining books up along the wall and separating the rows with other books, lying flat. The pile was waist-high and took up the entirety of the only bare wall in the room.’

Melissa: This happens frequently, he intends to do one task but gets distracted by reading a passage from a book. It’s very endearing. And relatable.

Melissa: But! Back to the investigation. He methodically works his way through the suspects — those bits of the story are solid police procedural. He also becomes smitten with two women involved in the case: they dead guy’s glamorous, chilly widow and an effervescent gym owner who may or may not have something to do with the case.

Melissa: The investigation takes Espinosa all over Rio, and there’s a very strong sense of the different neighborhoods and the overall vibe of the city: steamy, romantic, a little dangerous. The author was born in Rio and always lived in Copacabana himself. In an interview, he said, ‘Rio is seductive and sweet like a woman, but it can be as threatening as the moment that precedes a revolt.’ It’s clear the detective he created feels the same way.

Melissa: The structure of the book is a little kooky, but I liked it. There are three distinct sections. The first and third are narrated in the third person, so we’re on the outside of the case, peeking over the shoulders of the characters. But the middle section is told in the first person, from Espinosa’s point of view.

Melissa: Layered on top of that, at about the 50% mark, there was a Shocking Revelation. I gasped out loud. I thought I knew what was happening, but I did not. After that, there are lots of unexpected twists. It’s all very satisfying on both the emotional level and a ‘trying to figure out this puzzle’ level. I was 100% wrong about who I named as the murderer.

Melissa: This book was meant to be the first in a trilogy, but there are now seven Inspector Espinosa mysteries, and they’re all very well-reviewed. This one is ‘The Silence of the Rain’ by Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza, translated from Portuguese by Benjamin Moser.

David: My next recommendation is ‘Daytripper’ by Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba. Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba are twins, they’re Brazilian — native to San Paolo, where they still live — and they’re graphic novelists.

David: Gabriel Ba is probably best known as the artist behind ‘The Umbrella Academy.’ That was a surreal superhero story — more surreal than most — that became a live action series on Netflix. Moon and Ba been making comics together most of their lives. They started at 10. They self-published some work at 17. They’re now in their late 40s.

David: They’ve worked separately, but they’ve done some of their best work together.

David: One of their projects was called ‘Two Brothers.’That was an adaptation of a Brazilian novel by Milton Hatoum . That’s an immigrant story — about a Lebanese family living in Brazil. There are twins at the center of that book — two brothers that have a challenging relationship. The original novel won Brazil’s top literary prize; the graphic novel adaptation won an Eisner.

David: Michael Chabon’s pull quote on that book is, ‘Two Brothers is a feat of bravura visual storytelling, a revealing and nuanced work of family portraiture, and a thrilling act of historical re-imagination. It is clearly the work of two major artists, two master collaborators, operating at the peak of their powers.’

David: Why don’t you marry it, Michael? — but that wasn’t the project I wanted to talk about. The project I wanted to talk about is called ‘Daytripper.’

David: Daytripper was originally published as 10 comic books — 10 floppies, the 32-page soft-cover books that you probably think of when I say, ‘comic book.’ It’s now available as a graphic novel — all bound in one book.

David: The series is about a man — a writer — his name is Bras de Oliva Domingos. And at the end of every issue of ‘Daytripper,’ Bras dies.

David: In every issue, it’s at a different age. In the first issue, he’s 32. He’s an writer at a local newspaper, but he really wants to be a novelist. In that issue, Bras dies in a hold-up. In the next, he’s at a festival at 21. He drowns.

David: Each issue ends with an obituary. In the next issue, his life is reset. We usually see an important day or two — the day he met his wife, the day his father dies — and then Bras’s own death. Next issue, he resets. It’s a little sliver of magical realism — that kind of does what magical realism is supposed to do. It contrasts the realism.

David: Now you might think a setup like that would be a little dark. But that wasn’t the primary take-away.

David: For me, there were two things that got my attention.

David: First, is that it’s an interesting portrait of a character — and the other people in his life. You see the arc of Bras’ life — and you get to think about what it would have been like if it stopped at different ages. But then you also see it go on.

David: Other characters evolve or disappear. When he drowns at 21, Bras is just starting a relationship with a beautiful woman that he’s met. By the third issue, he’s a little older and that relationship has grown cold. She’s moved to his city, and she resents him for it. They’re fighting.

David: Because the issues rock back and forth in time, we sometimes get consequences before the action. That’s put to good effect when we meet Bras’s father, for instance. In the very first issue, we get the sense that his father casts a long shadow on his life. As the story goes on, and we see him as younger man and a child, we find out more about exactly why that is.

David: Through the book, we see Bras start a career, start a family. We see those stop, and we get to have a minute to think about what that would be like — but then we also see those develop.

David: The second thing that got my attention is that it’s a pretty solid meditation on life and mortality. How things change and how they stay the same. How a life kind of rhymes with itself. How there’s almost always hope.

David: When I was reading this, I was also reading a book for our cemetery episode. That’s a non-fiction written by a paliative care nurse about death. And these two books were really talking to each other. What is a good death? Do you get to choose?

David: There are some bits of ‘Daytripper’ that I wish were a little more developed. A friend of Bras goes on a story arc that I didn’t find that well motivated. I would have liked to have known more about Bras’ parents. Moon and Bra wrote this book when they were in their 30s. I wonder if it would have changed if they’d written it now.

David: But, overall, I thought this was a really lovely work. It won an Eisner when it came out. It’s ‘Daytripper’ by Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba.

Melissa: My final recommendation is ‘Flesh and Bone and Water’ by Luiza Sauma. This is a mashup of coming-of-age story and family saga set in 1980s Rio de Janeiro and 2013 London.

Melissa: The main character is Andre, and he narrates the book. He’s a middle-aged Brazilian doctor now living in London. One day, he receives a mysterious letter from Brazil. It says, in part, ‘Do you ever think of us? Probably not, but you should… I’ve never been to Europe. I’ve never even left Brazil… How could I complain? It’s beautiful and safe… You can smell the jungle wherever you go…’ It closes with these words: ‘I will write to you again. I have a lot to tell you. I will make you wait, just as you made us wait. — Luana’

Melissa: Andre doesn’t tell anyone about the letter, including his wife. He secretly carries it in his pocket for weeks, reading it between patients, sometimes just touching it in his pocket like a talisman.

Melissa: This letter pulls him back into his memories of childhood in Brazil — his school friends (which were more like frenemies), his mother’s tragic death (which may or may not have been an accident), and his rocky relationship with his dictatorial father.

Melissa: As Andre’s history is slowly revealed, the narrative is punctuated by more letters from Luana. We gradually learn the truth of who Luana is and what she and Andre were to each other. Eventually, Andre returns to Brazil where his past life and his current reality collapse into each other.

Melissa: Full disclosure: Andre’s backstory is not pleasant. His father was a wealthy plastic surgeon with not much interest in being a father. Andre was only 16 when his mother died in a car accident, and he was left to manage his own grief while also trying to look out for his younger brother Thiago.

Melissa: Teenaged Andre and his friends could politely be called ‘privileged.’ One might also describe them as spoiled brats. They’re cruel to each other in that weird competitive way teenagers can be. They drink too much. They lie to their parents. They stay out carousing all night, then loll listlessly on the beach all day. The relentlessly hot, humid weather is like the devil on their shoulders, taunting them into debauchery.

Melissa: But because we’re inside Andre’s head, he’s mostly sympathetic. The passages about his childhood have echoes of a gender-flipped Jane Eyre. I felt indignant and defensive on his behalf. When he grew slightly older, and made one bad, hormone-fueled decision after another, I still wanted good things for him.

Melissa: This book has a very strong sense of place. It’s the kind of book you read with Google open to look at photos of Copacabana Beach or Marajo Island where he and his brother swim in the Amazon. And the city of Belém , in the rainforest, where they spend the first Christmas without their mother, at their father’s old family home.

Melissa: The writing is so evocative, I swear, the back of my neck got a little sweaty while I was reading. Here’s a bit to give you an idea:

‘Belém is the Portuguese word for ‘Bethlehem,’ but those long-dead explorers from the old world must have named it when it was abundant, full of hope. In 1985 it was a city of broken pavements, colonial buildings gone green and mossy, torrential rain, and burning sun. The people were shorter and darker than in Rio, with small eyes, like me and Papai. (Thiago was more like Mamãe: spindly and white.) It took seconds to sweat through a fresh set of clothes. We stayed at a cracked, pale yellow colonial house with tall, shuttered windows, near the Pará River — the southern part of the Amazon River, where it meets the Atlantic.’

Melissa: I should also mention that Brazilian food is all over these pages, and you could use it as a to-do list for a Brazilian dinner party. There’s black bean stew, fried dough balls with cheese, manioc pancakes, seafood stew, meat pies like empanadas, and a walnut cake with coconut custard dream. I’m sharing a video in show notes of a street food tour in Belém that is 100% yes.

Melissa: I also enjoyed the haunted atmosphere of this book. It falls in my Sunny Gothic category. For new listeners, that’s a book description I totally made up for books with Gothic tropes like emotional hauntings, dramatic weather, family secrets, and isolated houses, all set in hot, sunny places.

Melissa: All of the characters, but especially Andre and Luana, are haunted by the events of the past, dragging ghosts made of unresolved feelings into their current relationships. When the central mystery of the novel is finally revealed — through Andre’s memories and Luana’s letters — I thought ‘whoa… WHAT?!’ and ‘of course’ at the same time.

Melissa: If you like a messy family drama — and you want to be transported to the beaches and jungles of Brazil — this is a very satisfying read. It’s ‘Flesh and Bone and Water’ by Luiza Sauma.

David: Those are five books we love, set in Brazil. Visit our show notes at strongsenseofplace.com for links and details. We’ll show you some beautiful parts of Brazil. We’ll play you some beautiful dance music.

David: Mel, where are we going for our next episode?

Melissa: It’s Spooky Season! We’re getting emo and hanging out in the cemetery.

[cheerful music]

Top image courtesy of Alexandre Barbosa/Unsplash.