Brazil: The Once and Future Country (1998)

As the most comprehensive introduction to Brazil available in English, Brazil: The Once and Future Country shows Brazil to be a land of the marvellous and the mystical, the sublime and the tragic. Eakin describes a country defined by paradoxes: immense wealth surrounded by widespread poverty, a modern industrial infrastructure alongside an outmoded agricultural system, a largely white South and a Northeastern coast that is overwhelmingly of African descent. Eakin chronicles Brazil's development from its origins in the sixteenth century, when it was created as a by-product of European imperial expansion, to the present day. He takes the reader from the hovels of Sao Paolo to the pleasure palaces of Rio de Janeiro and all places in between to show the rich cultural mix that is Brazil. Brazil: The Once and Future Country is a fascinating read that anyone interested in Brazil will want. It is also the perfect book for the traveller, armchair or otherwise, interested in this endlessly fascinating country.