The Depopulation - by Marina Closs (Paperback)

About the Book

"THE DEPOPULATION introduces Argentinian author Marina Closs to English-language readers as a writer of stunning range. In prose both restrained and lyrical, she creates a vivid account of a historical episode in 1600s Latin America at the far, bristling edges of Iberian conquest. The setting is Guaira, in today's Brazil, then under Spanish rule. Between 1628 and 1631, the "bandeirantes," mestizo-Portuguese offspring, went marauding through the area in search of slaves and gold. Some 60,000 indigenous Guarani are thought to have been killed and displaced, including many who had settled in and around Spanish Jesuit missions. But at the mission of St. Ignatio, a pair of eccentric Jesuit priests, Father Ruiz and Father Maceta, have instilled a provisional harmony devoted converting the indigenous population to Christianity. Enter Overa, a wandering singer-storyteller and dancer who announces himself as the "Son of God" - Jesus' brother - born when a godly ray of light entered a clay jug. With others who settle there to seek the protection of the mission, they form an unlikely community that accommodates their disparate traditions and beliefs to unusual and surprising effect. Tender, whimsical, and poetic, while firmly rooted in the brutal realities of colonialism, THE DEPOPULATION will transport readers to a faraway time dominated by other culture wars while presenting a fresh, original voice worthy of comparison to the Latin American boom's most celebrated writers"-- Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

From a major new talent in Latin American literature comes a tale of cultures, languages, spirits, and the natural world on the brink of transformation

"Of all the happy, hermitic lands, the Guayrá was the jewel."

So begins this polyphonic wonder of a novel set in a 17th-century Jesuit mission founded within the Brazilian wilderness by the mystical and intense Father Ruiz and his assistant Father Maceta. As the priests seek to convert the indigenous Guaraní and unravel the many religious mysteries that surround them, the harmony of their community is abruptly upended by the arrival of Overá, who announces himself as the Son of God and younger brother of Jesus. But an even larger threat presents itself when word arrives that European marauders and slave hunters will soon descend upon the peaceful mission, compelling Overá and the priests to launch a mass exodus into the heart of the jungle.

Full of humor, passion, and terror, The Depopulation brilliantly evokes the moment when modernity's spark set fire to a still-magic world.

Review Quotes

"Marina Closs's writing trembles, sweats, explodes; she is, as of now, one of my favorite writers." --Mónica Ojeda

"A luminous and dazzling novel . . . that evokes legendary tales. . . . It is the ease of the poetic prose--the cadence of the sentences, the power of certain images--that sustains this impalpable, marvelous world, a world in which everything seems created for the first time as in a living, playful, newly-born cosmogony." --Otra Parte

About the Author

Marina Closs grew up in a small town in the Misiones province of Argentina, an area steeped in the history that informs The Depopulation, her first novel to be published in English. She is the recipient of Argentina's Fondo Nacional de las Artes Prize and Angélica Gorodischer Prize, and has also been shortlisted for Spain's Finestres Prize and Ribera de Duero Prize. She lives in Santiago, Chile.