This powerful and compelling novel tells the story of a community of Afro-Brazilians, or Black Brazilians, or Quilombolos (a term totally new to me) living and working in Brazil’s poorest region, eking out an existence as tenant farmers who have no rights and are ruthlessly exploited by wealthy landowners. Although actual slavery was abolished three generations earlier, injustices still remain. Three generations of the same family find themselves caught between remaining in their familiar feudal situation or fighting back to gain human and economic rights. We see this struggle through the lives of one family, and in particular two sisters. The story is told in three parts, the first two being narrated by each sister, and the third by an ancient spirit. So there is an element of magical realism here, but it doesn’t dominate, and although spiritual healing and exorcism play a major part in the family's lives it doesn’t take over the narrative which remains rooted in harsh reality. I very much enjoyed the novel, not least because it portrayed a way of life and a community I knew nothing about, and is a poignant and moving insight into the lives of Brazil’s poorest people, whose situation, as I understand it, is still dire even today. I’m normally allergic to magic realism, but here it is integrated well into the overall narrative and felt convincing. An interesting read indeed.

Well-written story that may teach readers something new about Brazil's culture. I stayed engaged most of the time. Nicely done.

Thanks very much for the free copy for review!!

Pro:
* memorable opening scene
* cultural depiction of time & place
Con:
* prose bogs down in “explanation” sometimes
* Choppy sentences become difficult to read. There is a lack of rhythm/flow.

Thank you to Itamar Vieira Junior and Johnny Lorenz, Verso Books, and NetGalley for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

When the only comps you can think of are Beloved and One Hundred Years of Solitude? Yep, this is a great book.

Such an enlightening read. I went into Crooked Plow completely in the dark about Brazil's Quilombola communities and feel like I learned so much in the space of a relatively short novel.

A really beautiful meditation on the importance of place and community across generations, especially when some of those generations had absolutely no say in their destination.

Crooked Plow begins with the curiosity of two young sisters going awry. Belonisia and Bibiana, enamored by a shiny knife they find tucked away in luggage under a bed, decide to explore the taste of the metal. They wonder: Will it taste like a spoon? This activity is as ill-fated as it sounds with both receiving serious injuries to their tongues, rendering one essentially mute for life.

This is not the only way that fate is stacked against these sisters and their impoverished quilombola community. As mere tenants on the land of a series of rich plantation owners, they are only allowed to inhabit non-permanent structures so the houses are built out of mud and need to be rebuilt periodically, as every rain erodes the safety of the walls. The community is, in essence, filled with sustenance farmers, eking out a hard existence without any permanence to their homes or belongings, or even their rights to their own labors.

But what sisters Belonisia and Bibiana do have in the category of good fortune is a loving relationship with each other and their immediate family. All of this changes as they mature and their paths divert. One sister heads off to the city with her new husband in pursuit of social justice and the other becomes a wife of a local man, who nearly succeeds in eroding her sense of self during their short marriage.

Against the backdrop of these two lives and their surrounding community, the novel explores the social injustices of the system into which this family was born and the right for recognition. Crooked Plow is beautifully written, managing to be both sad and optimistic at the same time. Throughout the novel and particularly in the final third, the ever-present world of the spirits, invisible beings in-and-of the community, mingle the story arc of this time and place across a broader, universal purpose, nicely tying together the time-bound fights for justice within this story with these same needs on a more universal scale.

For those who have read novels by other South American authors, perhaps most popularly Isabel Allende, the tone and structure of the novel will feel more familiar than what is more common in the U.S. For both the individual story and the broader message, I recommend Crooked Plow, and expect it will make others want to learn more about the history of Brazil, too.

Newly translated into English, Crooked Plow — originally released in 2019 as Torto Arado — won its author, Itamar Vieira Junior, several international literary awards and brings attention to the history of Brazil’s Quilombola population (descendants of enslaved Africans brought to work on Brazilian plantations until the abolition of slavery in 1888). Covering the lives of three generations of the “Chapéu Grande” family, Vieira tells of the hardship of tenant farming, the persistent effects of racism and colonialism, and the meaninglessness of “freedom” when a people have nowhere to go. This is also a story of perseverance, family love, and the spiritual and community supports that keep a people going against incredible odds. With a blend of social and mystical realism — encantados (spirit beings) interfere in the physical realm and have very real effects — Vieira intriguingly captures a time and place that I knew nothing about. I didn’t totally vibe with the storytelling format — there is very little dialogue, just a series of three different narrators telling us that this happened and then this happened — but I am delighted that Torto Arado has been translated into English and that I had an opportunity to learn from it; I hope that many more readers find their way to this tale.

This was a wonderful novel. Heartfelt and agonizing at times. I love reading magical realism based historical novels. This is a very talented author who writes characters with depth and feeling. I will definitely be in a rut after this one.