The Contestado Wizard

Tecla, a captivating narrator who witnessed World War II in Brazil, the military regime of 1964, and was moved by the Contestado War (1912-1916) through the testimonies of the tormented Gerd Rünnel—a character who himself carries a war within himself—exposes to the reader in a fluid and creative style these three crucial moments in Brazilian history. The crucial Contestado War and its important developments, still little known in Brazil, are described here in a unique and necessary way. It is estimated that twenty thousand people were directly involved in the conflagration, and, taken together, there were approximately fifteen thousand deaths in the Contestado. Half of the Brazilian army was deployed to the region, the entire Republic mobilized, the Supreme Federal Court even considered a habeas corpus petition in favor of the rebels, and Epitácio Pessoa and Rui Barbosa advocated for the warring parties. The Brazilian press warned of a possible reprint of Canudos. Added to this were the border disputes with Argentina in establishing territorial boundaries and the international dispute between ideologies that would characterize the 20th century. Godofredo de Oliveira Neto immerses the reader in these political intricacies, in addition to describing a vast array of European immigration to Brazil. The Contestado wizard has been studied at several institutions in the country, such as the Academia Militar das Agulhas Negras, universities, and high schools. The American magazine The Dirty Goat ranks the author among the three most important writers of the time (in an interview with Silviano Santiago). The Journal of Brazilian Literature, from Brown University/PUC-RS, and the Jornal de Letras de Lisboa highlight the novel within the contemporary Brazilian literary landscape.