Free city

João Almino's novel, the fifth in a series currently focusing on the founding period, reluctantly confirms his status as a "novelist of Brasília." But caveat lector, reader beware. The plethora of historical notes and even statistics obscures the terrain mined by the nature of fiction. The social farandole is orchestrated: candangos, contractors, profiteers of shady deals (the narrator's father is one of them), idealists, politicians, mystics of the salvationist sect. Visitors are scrupulously recorded. We know that Aldous Huxley, Fidel Castro, André Malraux, Foster Dulles, John dos Passos, Elizabeth Bishop, and many others were there. Juscelino Kubitschek was president of the Republic, and engineer Bernardo Sayão was overseeing construction when he was killed by a falling tree. The account is intended to be compiled as a blog, incorporating the insights of other bloggers. However, the reader immediately suspects everything, wondering why João Almino is mentioned in the acknowledgments, while the narrator is called João on the rare occasions his name appears. The wiles of fiction. Little by little, like a carnivorous flower, bewitching the unwary with fragrances and nuances, the imaginary world of the capital's pseudo-chronicler emerges. When the reader comes to, they have been swallowed up: Brasília has established itself as a microcosm and metaphor for the country, the universe, existence, or that dizzying whirlwind that is subjectivity. Walnice Nogueira Galvão