The work of the brilliant Ricardo Guilherme Dicke, at the time unfairly little recognized by the public, although highly regarded by critics, returns with the new edition of his most powerful novel, Madona dos Páramos , forty years after its first release and sixteen years after the author's death.
“A writer who moves me to the core [...] Madona dos páramos is a masterpiece”, this is how Hilda Hilst – one of the greatest Portuguese-language writers of the 20th century – describes Ricardo Guilherme Dicke and his novel Madona dos Páramos , originally published in 1982 and still a fundamental piece in his vast literary career.
Madonna of the Páramos tells the story of twelve fugitives who ride through the backlands of central-western Brazil in search of the land of Figueira-Mãe, where well-being and justice await them. Among them is a woman, the unnamed girl, forcibly taken from her home and family, the object of universal desire. All of them are in a battle against the inhospitable climate and geography, which also reflect their personalities. The richness of Dicke's linguistic work is absolutely unmistakable, making him one of the great stylists of the Portuguese language in the second half of the 20th century.
Born in Chapada dos Guimarães, Mato Grosso, Dicke writes about a sertão rarely seen in Brazilian literature as we know it; it's not the Northeast or Minas Gerais, which we're more accustomed to reading about. Nor is it about a place that diminishes the human condition, as Rodrigo Simon de Moraes—a great scholar of the author's works and the author of the foreword to this edition—aptly put it, but rather about a space that expands it and portrays nature as a "privileged vehicle for a re-enchantment of the world, a sacredness that will allow us to be both below and beyond time and, thus, overcome the dichotomy between life and death."
With this new edition of the novel that won the 1981 Brasília Fiction Prize, Ricardo Guilherme Dicke returns to his well-deserved place of prominence in Brazilian literature.
"A writer who moves me to my core is Ricardo Guilherme Dicke. I consider him to have an exceptional, beautiful language. Madonna of the Páramos is a masterpiece." – Hilda Hilst
“A great opportunity to (re)discover Ricardo Guilherme Dicke and his fiercely original literature.” – Marçal Aquino
“Genius who lived in seclusion.” – Ignatius of Loyola Brandão
“The unfairly unknown Ricardo Guilherme Dicke.” – Joca Reiners Terron
“A profound connoisseur of literature, he makes his craft a refinement of the creative art of words.” – Madalena Machado, Mato Grosso State University
