Milton Hatoum

"First published in 1989, The Tree of the Seventh Heaven was awarded one of the most prestigious prizes in Milton Hatoum's native Brazil (the Jabuti for the best Brazilian novel) and has since established his reputation in Europe. A captivating blend of the outrageous and the poignant, it recounts the lives of a large, unruly, and singular family of Lebanese emigrants to Manaus, a lush city isolated by the water and jungle of the Amazon." "When Emilie, the matriarch, dies, the stage is set for each member of the family to step forward, to tell his or her own story, recalling old secrets, bitter feuds, obsessive relationships, the collision of East against West, Christianity against Islam. We learn of Hanna, Emilie's husband, and his unprecedented decision to leave Lebanon for Brazil early in the twentieth century... of Emilie's persistent attachment to her homeland (evidenced in the profusion of mint, lamb, and figs in her kitchen and by her instructing her eldest son in Arabic)... of Uncle Emir's mysterious and unfathomable suicide... of the illegitimate deaf-mute child Soraya Angela... of the German photographer and constant friend Dorner, who roamed Manaus clicking his Hasselblad and furiously writing in his notebook... of Uncle Hakim, who has tried his best to unravel the families' secrets... and the narrator, a woman adopted by Emilie and just recently returned from a long sojourn in Barcelona." "As the narrative baton is passed back and forth, the voices of The Tree of the Seventh Heaven are woven together, lyrically and evocatively, yielding to us the indelible texture of very human lives."--BOOK JACKET.

"Este romance de formação - no qual as memórias do narrador são transcritas e repensadas em Paris - ecoa com força no nosso tempo, em que o impasse político e a desmoralizaçãodas instituições estão no centro da crise brasileira"--Page 4 of cover.

"Ashes of the Amazon' is the story of a long rebellion and the struggle to understand it. The rebel is Mundo, the embittered offshoot of a family split down the middle, whose artistic vocation clashes with his father's plans. The author's other work includes 'Tale of a Certain Orient' and 'The Brothers."

"Set in the Brazilian port of Manaus, The Brothers is the story of identical twins, Yaqub and Omar, whose mutual jealousy is offset only by their fierce love for their mother, Zana.". "Omar has always been the object of Zana's Jocasta-like passion, but his indolence and self-indulgence lead him to a life of crime that his mother refuses to acknowledge. Yaqub is the seemingly more trustworthy of the two, and soon leaves for Sao Paulo and a successful career as an architect, but only after he has exacted a subtle revenge on his brother. Yet in spite of his professed desire to have nothing more to do with his family, he is too firmly entangled in their pernicious relationships - a web complicated by his beautiful sister, Rania - not to be drawn back to Manaus."--BOOK JACKET.

"This is a story of a return: to Manaus, in the heart of the Amzaon; to a large and unruly family of Lebanese emigrants; to the past. Emilie, the matriarch, is on her deathbed. Returning to her childhood home to say goodbye, her granddaughter becomes enveloped in memories, as family and friends gather round to tell their own tales, one by one."

The setting for this magical fable is Eldorado, the Enchanted city that inhabited the fevered dreams of European navigators and conquistadors, but eluded all attempts to find it on the map. Some have linked it to Manaus in the Amazon Basin, and it is here that Arminto Cordovil lives with his father Amando in a white mansion. Orphans of Eldorado is a rich and magical fable that beautifully captures the atmosphere of the steamy, lush Amazonian world.