Lieutenants: The Brazilian Civil War

The story of the political crisis that triggered a civil war in Brazil.

In these pages, Rio de Janeiro will be bombed. São Paulo will be bombed. Buildings, homes, and factories will be razed to the ground; rapes and executions will be committed in broad daylight in upscale neighborhoods, and hundreds of dead bodies will be scattered throughout the streets. A governor will find himself besieged for days, improvised trenches at the palace gates to resist the enemy advance. Machine guns, tanks. And planes will come very close to blowing up presidents. Yes: presidents. Two distinct presidents of the Republic.

There's not a single iota of fiction in these pages. It all happened that way. It's with this masterful style, combining the rigor of meticulous historical research with the experience of a seasoned reporter, that Pedro Doria recreates—from original, hyper-realistic angles—the scenario that sparked the Tenente movement in the 1920s.

Told in the form of a thriller, Tenentes presents the story of the political crisis that triggered an unprecedented civil war in the country, at a time - not so long ago - when political crises were resolved differently.