Trip Out to the Soul of Brazil

Trip out to the soul of Brazil is a report about an on-the-road trip, taking in all regions of Brazil, listening to the country's simple people, unveiling local history, and shedding light on long-distant scenes of this great and generous, yet suffering, country. The author has pursued a route largely off the beaten track, and gives preference to simple housing and cheap means of transport. He passes through cities and villages, asking about the local history; crosses the tiniest of settlements, sailing along the local rivers; and observes people along the way, talking to them, listening to their dreams and their problems. Whether by boat, by bus while taking in the landscape, by hitchhiking, by train or even on foot. History, festivities and legends. A Buddha in the heart of the Amazon. Going down the great river. A night on a ghost ship, in a thunderstorm. Parintins. Native Brazilians and the local berry, guaran. A village that crossed the Atlantic. Maraj. The story of a witch doctor. The paths trailed by Lampio and his wife Maria Bonita through the Brazilian backlands. The Contestado region. Canudos and Antnio Conselheiro; Palmares and Zumbi. The paths trailed, the politics and the uprisings of the Brazilian South. Anita and Garibaldi. The saint, the poetess and the large distances of the Brazilian Midwest, in this human portrait of a country that is not well known, even to Brazilians themselves.