Elisama Santos – author of the bestsellers Courageous Conversations , Why We Scream and Nonviolent Education – makes her fiction debut with a sensitive and disturbing novel about family relationships .
In "Same River ," Elisama Santos begins with the idea that, just as "no one can step into the same river twice," it's impossible to be the same mother to all one's children. And this invariably leaves a deep mark on everyone. It's an invitation to delve into the mighty waters and the far-from-obvious meanderings of this intense course that is family dynamics. Supported by an engaging literary narrative, the author entangles us with captivating and real characters in everyday situations, gradually leading us to complex feelings.
Here, we follow the story of the Soares family: the mother, Maria Lúcia; the father, Benedito; and the three children: Lucas, Marília, and Rita. Throughout her life, the mother established a specific relationship with each child. She is devoted to one and impatient with the other. She loves one of them without reservation, while the other feels the need to sacrifice his feelings to be accepted. The consequences of this are gradually revealed, like a cup that gradually fills, drop by drop, day after day, throughout life, until it overflows.
Since childhood, Rita, the youngest in the family, sought in her mother the love readily offered to her siblings. The impossibility of finding it leads her, seemingly unexpectedly, to close the gate to her home and never return. Although her siblings believe it was a drastic action—after all, the mother they had didn't deserve it—Rita's separation from the mother she knew happened slowly. So slowly, that Lucas and Marília didn't notice, like the rust that corrodes the strongest of structures and the erosion that the river causes on its banks.
Thus, during a family Christmas, the relationship between Rita and her mother finally collapses, and the rubble spreads. Is there room for reconstruction? Is there anything left to make a reunion between the two and the establishment of a real connection possible? More than answers, in this moving—and, at times, disconcerting—novel, Elisama Santos invites us to access our own history and work through our questions.
“Elisama’s books are worth reading.” – Taís Araujo, presenter and journalist
“Elisama is the greatest symbol I know of unrestricted willingness to support the transformation of unworthy patterns of human relations.” – Alexandre Coimbra Amaral, writer and psychologist
“Elisama’s words are like a unique lens, a magnifying glass to see the reality of family relationships in a special way” – Júlia Rocha, doctor, singer, songwriter, writer, columnist, mother and doula.
