Novel creates a fictitious environment in the Amazon and deals with hunger, social exclusion, intolerance and democracy

Mencius Melo – From Cenarium Magazine

MANAUS – The novel “Onde Pousam Os Urubus”, (‘Where the Vultures Land’ in english) from the writer Andre L Braga, arrives at the publishing market and is competing for the 7th Kindle Literature Award. The work is the sixth novel of the writer born in Americana, São Paulo, and who currently lives in the Netherlands.

The book, published by Independente, is for sale in e-book format on Amazon website and brings in its pages a novel set in the misery of “NovaAmazônia”, a fictitious country located in the Brazilian Amazon.

In an exclusive interview for CENARIUM MAGAZINE, Andre commented on the work. “The idea of setting the book in “NovaAmazônia”, a fictitious nation in the north of Brazil, was due to a combination of factors. First, it was a question of geography. The story called for an enormous river island, with an area of eight hundred square kilometres and home to two million inhabitants”, he explained.

With the need to allocate the plot, the writer looked at the dimensions. “In addition to the immense, fluvial Marajó, the region is home to several river islands, such as Mosqueiro, Cotijuba and Combu, also in Pará; Guarajá-Mirim, in Rondônia; and the extensive Anavilhanas National Park, in Amazonas. It is the perfect scenario to house the fictitious Pouso Alegre”, detailed Braga. “Pouso Alegre” is the city where the waste pickers of the fictitious country live and the political struggle to conquer it extends to the conquest of the “New Amazon” country.

Map of hunger

According to Andre L Braga approaching hunger and misery in his new work is an exercise in observation. “A combination of external factors, associated with mistaken public policies, such as the emptying of the Government’s regulatory stocks, brought Brazil back to the hunger map. The news itself is shocking, but data, numbers and statistics cannot translate the horror behind it all, as well as a photograph. It was exactly this, a photograph, that aroused the urgency to deal with the theme in a work of fiction”, he pondered.

“Last year, I came across a photograph of people fighting over food scraps in the back of a rubbish truck. That image moved me. There was something inside me that was screaming: You need to write about this! You need to take this subject to your readers! I believe that entertainment literature can indeed awaken those who read it, those who consume it, to reflect on current issues”, Braga said.

Inspiration

Permeated by social, political and psychological drama, “Where the Vultures Land” transitions between hunger under capitalism (“Island of Flowers”) and the repression of freedom under authoritarianism (“1984”). The former is an acclaimed brazilian documentary by Jorge Furtado and the other is the world-renowned George Orwell novel.

“From ‘Island of Flowers’, I sought the metaphor – not so metaphorical, actually – of the island, of the distant place, of difficult access, to where everything that bourgeois society does not want to see around is dispatched”, Andre commented.

He explains that in the city of Pouso Alegre, as well as in ‘Island of Flowers’, families dispute what to eat with rats and vultures, hunting food scraps amidst the rubbish that comes from the big city. From ‘1984’, according to Braga, comes the false impression of freedom that hovers over the capital, and the control of truth.

“In ‘Novamazônia’, just like in the pages of “1984”, the press is controlled by the State, and news is manipulated, in favour of the interests of the Party”, he theorised.

Amazonian details

Asked about the “Amazonian” details in the work of the São Paulo native living in Europe, Andre L Braga replied: “the work of someone who writes fiction goes far beyond the writing itself. You have to do research, you have to talk to people who have lived through certain situations, you have to keep your eyes and ears open all the time in search of inspiration and information. In order of relevance, I believe that this research work is worth as much as the personal experiences of those who write”, he analysed.