Vastlands: The Crossing

<p><b>WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY COLM TÓIBÍN</b><br><br><b>'Dramatic, wildly colourful and continuously interesting' <i>NEW YORK TIMES</i></b><br><b>'A veritable linguistic tour de force' MARIO VARGAS LLOSA</b><br><br>In 1956, Brazilian author João Guimarães Rosa published what would become his magnum opus, <i>Grande Sertao: Veredas</i>. South American literary critics were astounded by this ground-breaking ode to the backlands of Brazil, declaring it the Brazilian <i>Ulysses</i>. Guimarães Rosa’s astounding work would take the Latin American literary world by storm.<br><br>Originally translated as <i>The Devil to Pay in the Backlands</i> in 1963, <i>Vastlands</i> is a single sweeping retrospective monologue from the point of view of Riobaldo, a former <i>jagunço</i> – 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.<br><br><b>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.</b></p>