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With direct, straightforward language, As Above, So Below captures the reader's attention from the very first pages. This electrifying, award-winning novel by Ana Paula Maia chronicles the daily life of an isolated penal colony on the verge of decommissioning.
Built on land with a dark history of slave torture and murder, the institution was created to be a model of detention from which no prisoner would ever escape. Over time, the initial goal of socializing inmates for reintegration into community life was distorted. In practice, the colony became something very different: a kind of extermination camp.
In the final days of operation, the atmosphere in the facility, which then only had a few inmates, was apparently calm. However, little by little, the horrors experienced there are revealed. Senior officer Melquíades is the highest authority behind those walls, and also the prisoners' tormentor. On nights with a full moon, the chief releases some convicts from their ankle bracelets and orders them to run. He then begins a sinister game, hunting the men with his rifle as if they were wild animals, solely for personal satisfaction. The prisoners, each with their own story, are constantly planning their own escape, unsure whether they will end up killed by the guards or by what awaits them outside the Colony.
The fruit of Ana Paula Maia's sensitivity and talent, "As on Earth as Under the Earth" emerges at a time of debate about the state of Brazil's penitentiary system, with the rise of an extremist and violent discourse opposing human rights policies. A powerful and necessary book, it leads us to reflect on those individuals who are left with only the work no one wants to do and the contempt of society.
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