Brazil red

THE COLOR OF BRAZIL.

Brazil, it’s not only the dunes, coconut trees, the Olympic games to take place, or the Rio Carnival! It’s also the fabulous history of the discovery and colonization of this country. If it was the Portuguese (for certain Pedro Cabral) who’ve first discovered Brazil in 1500s, the French made a striking arrival a few years later under the command of explorer Nicolas Durand de Villegagnon who arrived in the bay of Rio. At the time, Villegagnon was a favorite of the King of France: it was he, himself, who went to search for Marie Stuart in 1548, the future Queen of France, Scotland, and brought her back to France for her engagements at the Dauphin of France. Circling back to Brazil. In his work, Jean-Christophe Rufin brought back to life, the arrival of Villegagnon in November 1555 from the Harbor of Rio de Janeiro. At the time, Villegagnon called the short-lived French-Brazilian colony, France Antarctique. Short-lived because the French would remain a decade, very quickly thrown out by the Portuguese. Brazil Red, a romanticized story about the arrival of the famous Villegagnon from this bay, was published in 2001. It became a classic.

Through polished writing, Rufin depicts characters whose psychological depth allows us to go back in time and understand the real stakes of this pitiful Brazilian conquest. The indispensable bible to be read under a coconut palm to escape in the time of the conquistadors.

Brazil Red Written by Jean-Christophe Rufin,
Editions Gallimard,
550 pages