Terrapreta
Black Soil
by Rita Carelli
Editora 34 2021
240 pages
14×21 cm
A coming of age novel combining the troubles of youth with the discovery of an out-of-the-world village, where life follows the rhythm of nature, and people and magic walk together. Such a scenario becomes a chance to face life’s challenges with new awareness.
Inspired by stories from the villages where the author has lived, this novel tells the story of Ana, a 15 years old middle-class student in São Paulo. After the loss of her mother, she is forced to move in an indigenous village in Upper Xingu, in Mato Grosso: there she will join her father, an archaeologist committed to studying the culture and proving the millenary human occupation of the region to protect it from land exploiters.
As difficult it would be to imagine a life more different from her previous one, Ana will soon be charmed by this unknown world where magic lives, there are men who actually are alligators, hummingbirds who used to be men, women who dated fish and dead people actively participate in daily life (and from time to time even come back to live a little more).
While discovering Upper Xingu’s culture, rituals, beliefs and customs – at turns from the eyes of Ana, from her father’s or from a third person point of view – we will also follow Ana’s discoveries and fears about her changing body and her condition as a woman, both in the village and in the world.
Carelli’s descriptions are essential and powerful: as Ana is far away from the poor motherless girl, the life in the village is never painted as ideal and perfect and several characters have their own storylines. At turns the main character becomes the forest itself: devastating fires, the genocide of native people, the ignorance of the press and the consequences of tourism in regions that should be protected take over the pages.
Far from the life she experienced in São Paulo and Paris, in Xingu Ana will become part of that universe of affections and sensitive experiences of the indigenous community: every gesture, every word, every concern will become permeated by a mythical vision of the world. This new context will allow Ana, not without conflict, to come into contact with her own body, her desires and her fears. Alone or supported by the people of the village, she will experience a personal initiation leading to a powerful journey towards maturation.
Here you can download an English BOOK PROFILE
Press:
«A coming of age novel for readers who glimpse other cartographies of a country, a book for those who still do not know what Brazil is.»
Ailton Krenak, Leader of the Indigenous Movement
Winner of the Prêmio São Paulo de Literatura 2022
Rights available: World
Represented in collaboration with MTS Agência
Rita Carelli was born in São Paulo in 1984. She is a writer, actress, film and theatre director and illustrator. She studied literature at the Federal University of Pernambuco and theatre at the Jacques Lecoq International Theatre School in Paris. She is a collaborator of the NGO Vídeo nas Aldeias, with which she made the collection of book-films for children Um dia na aldeia (2018). She is also the author of the books A história de Akykysiã, o dono da caça and Minha família Enauenê (2018), which were awarded the international label “White Ravens”, from the Library of Munich, and were among the “Highly Recommended” from the National Foundation for Children and Youth Books. In 2022 she was awarded the São Paulo Literary Prize, ex aequo with Antônio Xerxenesky and his Uma Tristeza Infinita.
* For any info about Rita Carelli’s other publications please contact us at info@redondobooks.com *
