THE
TROUBADOUR
a
detective novel by RODRIGO GARCIA LOPES
An enigmatic Provençal word is at the center of this
brilliant debut novel by Brazilian writer Rodrigo Garcia Lopes (1965). Found in
the mouth of one of the victims of a series of murders in southern Brazil, the
word scrawled on a piece of paper also appears in a strange poem sent to Edward
VIII, King of England. The task of investigating the connection between poem
and crime is up to Adam Blake, a translator and interpreter sent to the origin of
the clue: a British land company that operates in northern Paraná.
Led to Londrina by the hands of Lord Lovat, Her Majesty’s associate in the lands held by the Parana Plantations Limited, under the auspices of the Inspector Hugh Sinclair and Sir Winston Churchill in person, diligent Mr. Blake faces a city where immigrants Japanese, Russians, Germans, Spaniards and Brits fight for survival.
Besides the mix of babel, Eldorado and western represented by Londrina at the beginning of its timber and coffee exploration in 1936 — a setting as crucial to the plot as its characters — Blake also finds a solvable puzzle only by an amateur philologist.
Led to Londrina by the hands of Lord Lovat, Her Majesty’s associate in the lands held by the Parana Plantations Limited, under the auspices of the Inspector Hugh Sinclair and Sir Winston Churchill in person, diligent Mr. Blake faces a city where immigrants Japanese, Russians, Germans, Spaniards and Brits fight for survival.
Besides the mix of babel, Eldorado and western represented by Londrina at the beginning of its timber and coffee exploration in 1936 — a setting as crucial to the plot as its characters — Blake also finds a solvable puzzle only by an amateur philologist.
Intially
revealing a murder appearing to have stemmed from a love triangle between
company employees, the investigation advances to unveil the identity of the ruthless killer
called The Troubadour. Who was he and why would a person with talent for
language would appeal the murder as one of the fine arts?
Everything is surprising in this novel, from the accuracy in applying the rules of American and English detective novels of the '30s, to his rigorous historical research. But nothing beats the aptness of the author in creating his detective: just like Adam Blake, Rodrigo Garcia Lopes is an accomplished poet and translator. Subverting the famous motto "translator, traitor", this narrative delivers to the reader everything but treason. Adam Blake came to Brazil to stay.
Everything is surprising in this novel, from the accuracy in applying the rules of American and English detective novels of the '30s, to his rigorous historical research. But nothing beats the aptness of the author in creating his detective: just like Adam Blake, Rodrigo Garcia Lopes is an accomplished poet and translator. Subverting the famous motto "translator, traitor", this narrative delivers to the reader everything but treason. Adam Blake came to Brazil to stay.
JOCA REINERS TERRON, Brazilian
critic and writer
****
BLOOD ON THE RED LAND
Rodrigo Garcia Lopes brings in his first novel, The Troubadour, a mystery plot that dates back to the period of colonization in southern Brazil
One of the most important poets of his generation, Portugal Telecom Prize finalist in 2014 with the book of poems Reality Studio, Rodrigo Garcia Lopes - also a composer, journalist and translator of authors like Walt Whitman, Sylvia Plath and Arthur Rimbaud - proves to be a complete narrator in his fiction debut with the amazing The Troubadour. A detective novel written along the lines of Conan Doyle and Dashiell Hammett, the book takes us to Londrina, Brazil, before World War II at the start of its coffee plantations and timber exploration. It is there that translator Adam Blake, along with Lord Lovat, president of the British company Parana Plantations Ltd., seeks to unravel the mystery lurking between the lines of a medieval song. Rodrigo Garcia Lopes gives life to an adventure into a strange and dark past, where dirty sawdust workers, entrepreneurs in dinner jackets and other characters that help us unravel a series of murders which main clue is the given by the poem.
With an impressive mastery of the
classic detective genre, the author evokes a wide range of important issues
along the way: from corruption, colonialism and international relations, to
broader issues of society, morality and identity, revealing important details
of a little-known chapter of Brazilian history.
The TROVADOR
Rodrigo Garcia Lopes
Record Publishing | Grupo Editorial Record
406 pages
Price: R$ 45.00
Format: 16 x 23 cm
ISBN: 978-85-01-03034-4
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