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First published in 1989, The Tree of the Seventh Heaven was awarded one of the most prestigious prizes in Milton Hatoum’s native Brazil (the Jabuti for the best Brazilian novel) and has since established his reputation in Europe. A captivating blend of the outrageuous and the poignant, it recounts the lives of a large, unruly, and singular family of Lebanese emigrants to Manaus, a lush city isolated by the water and jungle of the Amazon.
When Emilie, the matriarch, dies, the stage is set for each member of the family to step forward, to tell his or her own story, recalling old secrets, bitter feuds, obsessive relationships, the collision of East agains West, Christianity against Islam. We learn of Hanna, Emilie’s husband, and his unprecedented decision to leave Lebanon for Brazil early in the twentieth century… of Emilie’s persistent attachment to her homeland (evidenced in the profusion of mint, lamb, and figs in her kitchen and by her instructing her eldest son in Arabic)… of Uncle Emir’s mysterious and unfathomable suicide… of the illegitimate deaf-mute child Soraya Ângela… of the German photographer and constant friend Dorner, who roamed Manaus clicking his Hasselblad and furiously writing in his notebook… of Uncle Hakim, [...]

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Set in the great Amazonian port of Manaus during the first half of the twenthieth century, this is the story of identical twin brothers who battle for the love of their mother. It is also a vivid and surprising portrait of a city built over the confluence of two great rivers in the middle of the Amazon rainforest. The novel itself, as it plays out the family drama, is full of eddies, dangerous undertows and shifting surface reflections.
While recounting the fortunes and trials of a Lebanesse immigrant fanily over many decades, The Brothers presents a Levantine Amazonia, a near-magical place at the far reaches of the Brazilian imagination. Foreigners, immigrants and the local population of Manaus share a landscape which delivers a wealth of sensations to the reader: a city full of smells, of sounds and tastes as well as a dazzling array of sights. Tense and richly atmospheric, this is an enthralling novel by one of Brazil’s finest contemporary novelists.
Translated from the Portuguese by John Gledson

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When Emilie, the matriarch of a large and unruly family of Lebanese emigrants, is on her deathbed, her granddaughter must return to Manaus and her childhood home to say goodbye. Here, in the heart of the Amazon, she becomes enveloped in memories, as family and friends gather round to tell their own tales. We hear of how Uncle Hanna first left Lebanon for Brazsil early in the twentieth century; of Soraya Ângela, the illegitimate deaf-mute child whose short life was blighted by fear and prejudice; of Uncle Emir and his solitary walk that ended at the bottom of  a river; of Hakim’s wranglings with the Arabic language; of the two unnameable, fiery-tongued brothers; of the German photographer and constant friend Dorner, roaming Manaus with his Hasselblad; and at the centre of it all lies Emilie; loving, interfering, luminous.

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Tale of a certain orient is a story of a return: to Manaus, in the heart of the Amazon; to a large and unruly family of Lebanese emigrants; to the past. Emilie, the matriarch, is on her deathbed.
Returning to her childhood home to say goodbye, her granddaughter becomes enceloped in memories, as family and friends gather round to tell their own tales, one by one.
We hear of how Uncle Hanna first left lebanon for Brazil early in the twentieth century; of Soraya Ângela, the illegitimate deaf-mute child whose short life was blighted by fear and prejudice;of Uncle Emir and his solitary walk that ended at the bottom of a river; of Hakim’s wranglings with the Arabic language; of the two unnameable, fiery-tongued brothers; of the German photographer and constant friend Dorner, roaming Manaus with his Hasselblad; and at the centre of it all lies Emilie: loving, interfering, luminous.
Flowing like the Amazon thorugh East and West, city and jungle,life and death, Tale of a Certain Orient has all the magnetism and lush beauty of its Brazilian setting.
Winner of the Jabuti Prize (the Brazilian equivalent of the Booker) this classic novel has already been published in seven countries. In this exquisite translation [...]

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Set in the Brazilian port of Manaus, The Brothers is the gripping story of identical twins, Yacub and Omar, whose mutual jealousy is offset only by the fierce love for their mother.
Omar has always been the object of Zana’s Jocasta-like passion, but his indolence and self-indulgence lead him to a life of crime that his mother refuses to acknowledge. Yacub is the seemingly more trustworthy of the two, and soon leaves for São Paulo anda a succesful career as an engineer, but only after has exacted a subtle revenge on his brother. Yet in spite of his professed desire to have nothing more to do with his family, he is too firmly entangled in their pernicious relationships – a web complicated by his beautiful sister, Rânia – not to be drawn back to Manaus.
Vivid, exotic, and lushly atmospheric, The Brothers is a haunting story of a family desintegration and cultural transformation by one of Brazil’s most acclaimed contemporary novelists.
translated by John Geldson
Praise for The Brothers:
“The sotry is universal, though sensously anchored in Manaus… gripping in both its particular twists and its tragic inevitability… it is a human story told in a world made real by a very good writer.” A.S.Byatt, [...]

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Ashes of the Amazon is the sotry of a long rebellion and the struggle to understand it. The rebel is Mundo, the embittered offshoot of a family split down in the middle, whose artistic vocation clashes with his fatheer’s dynastic plans; the attempt to understand him falls to Lavo, a hardworking orphan who betters himself – if that’s the word – under the influence of Mundo’s father, a rich businessman with friend in the military.
The symbolic heart of the novel lies in Vila Amazônia, a palatial villa at the centre of a jute plantation and Mundo’s worst nightmare. in his lifelong struggle to escape his father’s dynastic ambitions, Mundo distances himself as much as possible from this dead centre of the family’s wealth, escaping to Rio de janeiro and the the effervescent worlds of Berlin and London in the 1970s.
In Ashes of the Amazon, Hatoum has expanded and deepened his fictional world, taking to heart Flaubert’s injunction to write ‘the moral history of his generation’. This beautiful, mature, and involving novel is the extraordinary result.
Winner of Brazil’s three premier prizes: The Book of the Year, The Jabuti Prize for Best Novel, Portugal Telecom Prize.
translated by John Gledson

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