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The current issue of The Sun features photos from Kristin Capp, a really talented photographer who took a series of photos in Itaparica, Brazil. See more of her work– including photos of Itaparica, Salvador, and Brasilia– here.
Abraços,
Frances
My dear friend Deanna Fei’s debut novel will be released this week, April 1, by the Penguin Press! It is an incredible book. Here are the great reviews it’s gotten so far:
Advance Praise for A Thread of Sky
Lin Yulan, a revolutionary and leader of the Chinese feminist movement, reluctantly returns to her homeland after a self-imposed exile for a guided tour of “the new China” with her two daughters and three granddaughters in an effort for the nearly estranged women to reconnect. Each woman arrives in China with her own agenda, and each discovers that some shameful secrets are simply too heavy to bear alone. This powerful, intricately woven first novel is a meditation on grief and recovery, strength and vulnerability, and the urgency to leave one’s mark on the world. A very promising debut.
- INDIEBOUND
A Thread of Sky is a lyrical journey through the heart of contemporary China, and the family of women who make the pilgrimage across these pages are as complicated, broad-ranging, and fascinating as the country itself. Deanna Fei is one to watch.
-ANN PATCHETT
A remarkable debut by a gifted young novelist… A wonderful book!
-ANITA SHREVE
This had me at the first page. Fei’s debut novel is both intensely enjoyable and, I think, important. This novel charts the cost of that famous Asian silence, as a family takes in the price of it across several generations. But it is also an intimate portrait of that famous ‘new China,’ as much of a surprise to Chinese Americans as it is to the rest of us. Truly a book for our times.
- ALEXANDER CHEE
Fei stakes a claim in Amy Tan territory with this satisfying tale.
-BOOKLIST
Deanna Fei writes gracefully and with powerful insight and feeling about love and loss, homelands and promised lands, and the various roles of women in family and society. The reader follows her passionately searching characters to China with a brimming heart, and with admiration for a first novelist so full of promise.
-SIGRID NUNEZ
With its mother-daughter conflicts, a feminist message, and an exploration of Chinese roots, this novel will appeal to fans of Amy Tan as well as readers who generally enjoy… Julia Alvarez, Gish Jen, and Gus Lee.
-LIBRARY JOURNAL
A dazzling, heart-pulling debut. With gorgeous lyricism and rare power, Deanna Fei maps an intricate constellation of loss and love that illuminates the lives of three generations of women. The novel is a startling achievement, braided with history and hope and deep empathy, and it introduces readers to one of the most gifted and captivating storytellers of her generation.
-BRET ANTHONY JOHNSTON
It’s jaca season again. Yum. There is nothing like opening a ripe jaca (or jackfruit as it’s called in English) and eating the meaty yellow bulbs surrounding its seeds. They are delicious: sweet, a little tangy (their acid leaves a tingling sensation in your mouth), and really fragrant. If a jaca is really ripe, then it’s much TOO fragrant for some, smelling a little like rotten fruit.
Jacas came to Brazil from India. I suppose the Portuguese brought them and they’ve been around ever since. We have thousands of trees on the farm. The jaca is the largest tree-borne fruit in the world. They can apparently reach 80 pounds in weight and up to 36 inches long and 20 inches in diameter. The fruit’s skin is prickly and has a really sticky, milky sap when cut open. If the sap gets on your hands (and it usually does if you’re eating the fruit) you can’t just wash it off, but must use oil (olive oil, canola, etc.) to rub it off.
There are two kinds of jaca trees here: dura (hard) and mole (soft). A jaca dura tree produces fruit whose pulp is, you guessed it, harder than the mole’s pulp. It is impossible to tell just by looking at a tree which kind it is. I’ve tried and tried. You basically have to eat the fruit off the tree to know. There are great debates here (no, really, there are) about which kind of jaca is best–mole or dura. Mole is sweeter but has to be consumed right away. Dura lasts longer, and can be made into jam. I guess if you’re a die-hard mole lover, you subscribe to the “live in the moment” philosophy of life. While dura lovers like to take their time, enjoy things slowly, make things last as long as they can. I’m like our pigs–I like jacas any way I can get them.
Here’s a nice article about the jackfruit.
A wonderful review of The Seamstress in The Independent, a UK newspaper. The book’s paperback version was released by Bloomsbury in February of 2010. Here’s the review’s full text:
“Although this is Frances de Pontes Peebles’ first novel, her prose flows with the assuredness of a natural storyteller’s. Each sentence of her epic narrative is stitched with meaning and insight, and the reader’s imagination is woven into the novel from the very first paragraph
We begin in 1935 in Recife, Brazil, where the married Emilia lives in the largest house in an area of newly built estates. She is living a life which at one time she could only dream of. But dreams, as she will learn, come at a price.
As orphaned children, Emilia and her deformed sister Luiza were brought up in a hillside village under the care of their Aunt Sofia. They worked as seamstresses, yearning to find a thread to take them away to a world elsewhere. Interwoven with their personal adventures is a slice of the fraught Brazilian history of the 1920s and 1930s: the economy is fast unravelling, and unrest and a clamouring for the rights of women are spreading as people attempt to fabricate feasible lives for themselves. The challenge facing Emilia and Luiza is how not to compromise their loyalties to themselves, and, most crucially, to each other.”
Here’s a link to the actual review. Many thanks to Bloomsbury for offering the book in the UK!
One of our goals this year was to open up overgrown areas. In these cleaned areas, we’ll plant coffee seedlings this May. Our coffee plants like shade, so we keep as many trees as possible. The photo above is a picture of recently cleaned area of the farm. We’re so excited about all of the trees and planting space! If you look closely, you can spot Lorenzo in the background. This particular area is on a steep incline very far up the mountain. It was a tough hike to get there, and by the end Lorenzo and I were both looking for excuses to stop and catch our breath.
Um dos nossos objetivos este ano era a abertura de zonas de mato brabo. Nessas áreas limpas, vamos planta mudas de café em maio deste ano. Nossas mudas de café gostam de sombra, então tentamos manter todas as árvores no local. A foto acima é um retrato de uma área recentemente limpa. Estamos encantados com as árvores e o espaço! Se você olhar de perto, você pode ver nosso cão Lorenzo. Para chegar nesta área subimos uma ladeira valente. Foi uma caminhada difícil, e no final Lorenzo e eu estávamos procurando desculpas para parar e tomar fôlego.
“One of the Butterflies” by W. S. Merwin, from The Shadow of Sirius.
The trouble with pleasure is the timing
it can overtake me without warning
and be gone before I know it is here
it can stand facing me unrecognized
while I am remembering somewhere else
in another age or someone not seen
for years and never to be seen again
in this world and it seems that I cherish
only now a joy I was not aware of
when it was here although it remains
out of reach and will not be caught or named
or called back and if I could make it stay
as I want to it would turn to pain.
We lost one of the dogs this week. Negão, an old boy (somewhere between 14 and 16 years), and probably the best dog I’ve ever encountered. He was ferociously loyal and dignified (not a jumper or a licker). He allowed very few people to ever rub his belly. He was famous for his temper–if he didn’t like someone there was no winning him over. But if he chose you as a friend he was sweet and attentive and playful. Farm dogs tend to be a bit rougher than city dogs. We rely on our dogs to protect the property, to sniff out any potential dangers while we hike, to warn us of any foreign presence (man or beast) that shows up. Once, on the road bordering our farm, a man walked quickly towards James and tried to shake his hand. Negão misinterpreted this neighborly gesture as a threat–a stranger was coming too close too fast. He lunged and growled. We held him back. To strangers he was intimidating but to us he was a protector and a friend. I know, a dog is a dog and every life must run its course. But we’ll miss him very much. Cão feroz. Amigo fiel.
We harvested our first head of broccoli today. Isn’t she a beauty? We sauteed her in some fresh chicken broth, garlic, and a little bit of anchovy paste. Delicious! Next up, cauliflower.
Colhemos nosso primeiro brócolis hoje. Ele é lindo, não é? Cozinhamos o brócolis com caldo de galinha, alho, e um pouco de pasta de anchova. Uma delícia!
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