Eliane Brum Knihy

This collection showcases the best of Brazilian journalist, Elaine Brum's work from two books, combining short profiles with longer reported pieces. These missives range across current issues such as the human cost of exploiting natural resources, the Belo Monté Dam's eradication of a way of life for those on the banks of the Xingu River, and the contrast between urban centers and remote villages. Brum's reporting takes her into Brazil's most marginalized communities: she visits the Amazon to understand the practice of indigenous midwives, stays in São Paulo's favelas to witness the joy of a marriage and the tragedy of young men dying due to drugs and guns, and wades through the mud to capture the boom and bust of modern-day gold rushes. As she visits these places Brum provides intimate glimpses into both everyday and extraordinary lives: a poor father on the way to bury his son, a street performer who eats glass, a woman living out her final 115 days, and a hoarder rescuing the "leftover souls" of the city

A confrontation with the destruction of the Amazon by a writer who moved her life into the heart of the forest. Eliane Brum reveals the direct links between structural inequities rooted in gender, race, class, and even species, and the suffering that capitalism and climate breakdown wreak on those who are least responsible for them.

From Brazil's answer to Svetlana Alexeivich: a powerful glimpse into the lives of ordinary Brazilians.