May 13, 2019
A young Brazilian-British woman finds her footing between cultures in Rodrigues Fowler’s formally ambitious, captivating debut. Raised in the 1990s in South London by a Brazilian mother and English father, the unnamed protagonist catapults from teenage rebellion into first love with Leo, an older classmate, leading to a passionate but problematic relationship. A budding friendship with another woman (also unnamed) at a prestigious British university fractures over a trip to Brazil, where the English friend’s preconceptions are revealed; she “looks pouting sad because nowhere is cheap enough.” By 2014, the narrator has returned to her parents’ home and struggles with a health problem while working as a researcher for TV programs about Brazil. Reflecting on her past as an “eternal guest” in Brazil, and on the experiences of her maternal aunt and grandmother, the narrator opens up to the possibilities of renewed friendships and new love, discovering a self that is articulated not through the projections of others but through her own actions, as when she dances with cousins on a beach. Moving back and forth through time, alternating short prose sections with poems and pauses, and at times switching to Portuguese as the narrator “finds the other words,” Rodrigues Fowler writes frankly and imaginatively of the felicities and difficulties of adolescence and family ties, and of learning “to wrap your life around another person’s life.” This is a powerful debut.
May 15, 2019
A novel about a Brazilian British woman takes a fresh approach to bicultural identity. Readers of Rodrigues Fowler's debut might feel an early sense of confusion. Memoir? Poetry? Creative nonfiction? There are elements of all in this captivating, unconventional novel. Like the author, the unnamed protagonist was raised in a Brazilian British household. Many familiar themes appear. The woman is perceived as foreign in South London, the only place she's called home, while she's deemed not quite Brazilian by her extended family. The story is animated through intimate details that conjure the sights, the sounds, and the smells of each event: As the protagonist visits Brazil or cooks with her grandmother, Rodrigues Fowler evokes the taste of Brazilian food, the music of Portuguese. But the story is also told between the lines, as when Isadora, the main character's mother, recalls her English in-laws learning she was going to marry their son. A pleasant visit ended with Isadora kissing and hugging her future mother-in-law goodbye, as is her tradition, and her soon-to-be husband doing the same, later revealing, "You know, that is the first time I have hugged my mother in fifteen years." It seems gimmicky to leave the main character unnamed, but by the end, readers will feel they know her from the many stories shared about her family and her interactions, over time, with her mother, grandmother, aunt, female friends, the men and women she loves, and her response to those confused or attracted to her "foreignness." As the novel ends, the protagonist has become comfortable in her skin, embracing all the facets of who she is, realizing the strength of her Brazilian heritage with a full-bodied, heartfelt embrace. This novel seeps with the sweet satisfaction of staking a place in the world.
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May 15, 2019
In the early 1990s, Isadora and Richard buy their first house together in London. Isadora is from Brazil; Richard is from England. Their daughter is born into their bicultural household, learning both Portuguese and English. As she grows up with a name that she tells people how to pronounce in syl-la-bles, she struggles to find a place where she truly belongs. Her conversations with her family and her visits to and from Brazil lead her to learn more about the Brazilian half of her heritage, while at school she learns British history. As she navigates through adolescence and young adulthood, she experiences love and loss, discovers her sexuality, and eventually finds her identity along the way. This beautiful debut is bursting with wit and self-awareness that make for an intensely pleasurable read. Fowler vividly captures the struggle of growing up in two cultures through a unique and lyrical narrative while seamlessly shifting between the past and present. This poetic novel will keep readers engaged from beginning to end.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)