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Crooked Plow

Series: Verso Fiction
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Crooked Plow follows two sisters in Brazil's neglected Bahia hinterland who discover an ancient knife beneath their grandmother's bed, unleashing a violent force that shapes their lives forever. The narrative spans three generations after the abolition of slavery, exploring the harsh realities of subsistence farmers in one of Brazil's poorest regions. It blends elements of magic realism and family saga to examine themes of spirituality, slavery's lingering impact, and political struggle.
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Format: Paperback / softback
$2499
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

Readers interested in literary fiction centred on social and historical themes, particularly those exploring racial and economic struggles in Brazil. Fans of family sagas, magic realism, and works reminiscent of Latin American literary giants will find it compelling.

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Heralded as the most important Brazilian novel of the century so far, this bestseller's unique blend of magic and social realism won it three literary awards and global acclaim

Heralded as the most important Brazilian novel of the century so far, this bestseller's unique blend of magic and social realism won it three literary awards and global acclaim

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

'I heard our grandmother asking what we were doing.' "Say something!" she demanded, threatening to tear out our tongues. Little did she know that one of us was holding her tongue in her hand.'

Deep in Brazil's neglected Bahia hinterland, two sisters find an ancient knife beneath their grandmother's bed and, momentarily mystified by its power, decide to taste its metal. The shuddering violence that follows marks their lives and binds them together forever.

Heralded as a new masterpiece and the most important Brazilian novel of this century, Crooked Plow is a fascinating and gripping story about the lives of subsistence farmers in Brazil's poorest region, three generations after the abolition of slavery in that country. It is at once fantastic and realist, covering themes of family, spirituality, slavery and its aftermath, and political struggle.

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Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

This novel has been acclaimed as a new masterpiece and one of the most important Brazilian novels of the century. It was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2024 and praised by Financial Times as a profound exploration of Brazil's racial and economic injustices. Critics liken it to classics such as Les Misérables and The Grapes of Wrath, highlighting its powerful depiction of human dignity amid tragedy and injustice. Comparisons have been made to Jorge Amado for its portrayal of Afro-Brazilian life.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781839766404

Publisher: Verso Books

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 27 June 2023

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Verso Books

Contributors:

  • Translated by Johnny Lorenz

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 18.0mm

Width: 129.0mm

Height: 198.0mm

Weight: 232g

Pages: 288

About the Author

Itamar Vieira Junior was born in Salvador, Bahia, in 1979. He holds a doctorate in Ethnic and African Studies. Before Crooked Plow, he published a collection of short stories entitled The Executioner's Prayer, which was nominated for Brazil's biggest literary award, the Jabuti. Crooked Plow won the prestigious 2018 LeYa Award in Portugal.

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