Book, Eyes of Water - by Conceição Evaristo

Language: Brazilian Portuguese. In Olhos d'água Conceição Evaristo adjusts the focus of her interest in the Afro-Brazilian population, addressing, without mincing words, the poverty and urban violence that affect them. Without sentimentality, but always incorporating poetic texture into fiction, her stories present a significant gallery of women: Ana Davenga, the beggar Duzu-Querença, Natalina, Luamanda, Cida, the girl Zaíta. Or are they all the same woman, captured and recreated in the kaleidoscope of literature in different snapshots of life?They differ in age and experiences, but they share the same iron life, balancing on the “fragile stick” that, we read in the story “O Cooper de Cida”, is the “tightrope of time”. In Olhos d'Água there are mothers present, many mothers. And also daughters, grandmothers, lovers, men and women – all evoked in their social, sexual and existential bonds and dilemmas, in a plurality and vulnerability that constitute the human condition. Without any idealizations, the harsh conditions faced by the Afro-Brazilian community are recreated here with firmness and talent.