Sometimes, we find beauty in complex things. We crave explanations, seek to organize the world, long for harmony, and yearn for the ideal world. No, this is not the world of the writer João Calazans Filho. And "The Salamander" reflects this raw, real, possible, and playful universe of a writer who captures the profound beneath the surface, with an earthy, sweet, ironic gaze... And sometimes, a sarcastic one.
"The Salamander" is a personal invitation from the writer into his world, located in the south of Bahia—intrigues, bohemianism, betrayals, murders, dark plans, and power games. "The Salamander" is a universal novel, filled with passions, unlikely loves, and a lot of gossip.
A cheer for popular culture, the language of the people, from the simplest to the most refined, from the religious to the profane, from the mythical to the real world, from the logical to the realm of magical realism. Simply captivating.
The novel unfolds against a series of murders involving political criminals, corrupt individuals, and corruptors. The saga of an oppressed and enslaved people. "The Salamander" portrays various forms of slavery: physical, psychological, and financial, showing the fragility of man in the face of the abuse of force, power, and authority usurped by scoundrels, murderers, and villains. Beyond that, it is a mirror of who we are or who we should be. Truth and justice, sex and love, passion and despair, the thirst for power, and the desire for easy money.
Mix all of this in a universal broth, and we have the setting of a unique writer, who presents the truth "bare and raw" seasoned with the art of a people who need to "make do" to survive, never losing their essence, their morals, their way of saying: We will fight for freedom to the end.
"The Salamander" is an invitation into the depths of the human soul.
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