I had been seeing this beautiful book everywhere – from Instagram, to Twitter, to Goodreads. So when both Chandra and I received surprise copies, we were excited to add another #allthebookreviews title to the mix 🙂
FLESH AND BONE AND WATER is the debut novel by Luiza Sauma (released yesterday, June 20th!) and this shorter novel packed a beautifully written punch!
My Thoughts: 4/5 stars!
I received a surprise copy of FLESH AND BONE AND WATER by Luiza Sauma from Scribner right before release. I dove right into it without knowing the synopsis. It was a quick read at just under 300 pages- so beautifully written! Sauma proves that you don’t need a long novel to have well-developed characters, landscape, and deception.
Andre is a Brazilian teenager whose father is a successful plastic surgeon – they live in a life of privilege and wealth with multiple homes they shuttle between. At the age of sixteen, tragedy strikes, when Andre’s mom is killed in a car accident. In the wake of her death, Andre, brother Thiago, and their father (with their help in tow) to Belem. Belem is a city in the jungle at the mouth of the Amazon – the overwhelming heat only heightens their volatile emotions and they decide to move back to Rio.
Thirty years later, Andre is a successful surgeon living in London with his family. Having recently separated from his wife, he develops a drinking problem and can’t make the recurring dreams stop. Then one day, he receives a letter from Luana, the daughter of his family’s former maid, bringing to light more memories that he had been trying to repress.
For a shorter novel, this really packs a punch and beautifully tackles some very present issues. Touching on class and race, taking the reader from Rio, to the Amazon, and all the way out to London. The characters and their relationships are well-developed and Sauma intertwines the elements of sex, power, and race between two completely different worlds. The secrets and memories that shape who we are and how they can bend to save us from the truth we don’t want to face.
A big thanks to Scribner for a copy in exchange for my honest review!
Has anyone else read this one? Thoughts?
–Jess
Jessicamap Reviews 