Saving the Fire
Set in a small, disconnected rural village in Brazil, this family saga makes time unimportant. It is set today; it is set three hundred years ago—it does not matter. The reader enters the small village of Paraguaçu through the eyes of the Boy, whom we later learn is named Moisés. His hunchbacked sister, Luzia, cares for him in her own way, as she is his default mother—the other siblings have all moved away from the dying town. The father, Mundinho, an Indigenous man who resents the Catholics who collect yearly taxes for working the land, remembers that once, all this land belonged to no one but itself.
Through Luzia’s machinations, Moisés attends the Catholic school to try for a life better than his parents’, better than any of his siblings. Of the entire family, Luzia is the only one who manages to make anything happen, even though the other villagers mistrust her, throw rocks at her, blame her for every inconvenience, even down to the fire that Moisés sets out of petulance.
Literary, folky, with a dash of magic and Catholic piety, this book is an excellent, immersive read. Shown through the impoverished lens of everyday people, the author shows a world as it is, but also what could have been different had it not been looted by colonialism and the imposition of the Catholic church.
Translated from Portuguese, this team of author and translator have paired together before, and the work is seamless. This book has moral and philosophical depth, with truths being excavated in every chapter, but never at the expense of pacing or plot.
