Brazil: A Biography
LILIA M. SCHWARCZ and HELOISA M. STARLING
(ALLEN LANE, 800 PP, £30)
Tablet bookshop price £27 • tel 020 7799 4064

In presenting their history of Brazil as a biography, Lilia Schwarcz and Heloisa Starling say that they want “to let Brazil be the story”. A biography, for them, demonstrates “the profound connection between the public and private spheres”, and they appeal to “imagination and diversity of sources” in their attempt to “walk in the dead man’s shoes”. The result is a fascinating and very detailed account, over 700 pages, reinforced by 97 pages of notes, covering Brazil from its “discovery” – “though ‘invasion’ would be a more accurate term” – by the Portuguese in 1500 to the election as president of Fernando Henrique Cardoso in 1995. This is not “Brazil for Beginners”, nor is it the book for anyone interested in the last 23 momentous years that cover the election of Lula as president and the impeachment of his chosen successor, Dilma Rousseff, though these events are briefly discussed in an Afterword.

The authors are keen to question traditional accounts such as the thesis that the indigenous inhabitants were too weak to endure the hard labour of the sugar plantations, and therefore the Portuguese settlers imported African slaves. They suggest that this is a story put about by the Jesuits to protect the indigenous peoples. This argument has a very modern resonance: the victor of this year’s presidential election believes that the country is going to the dogs because of its indigenous inheritance.