The Moon Is Backwards traces the arc of a woman’s life from her childhood in the drought-stricken Northeast of Brazil in the mid-1940s, to her marriage and migration to help build the new capital, Brasília, from an idealistic vision of the future to the brutal reality of the military dictatorship and the constant dangers of her husband’s involvement in the resistance. Through it all, Eva’s love of cooking sustains her as she fights to build a better future for her family and country.
My Brazilian mother-in-law was the initial inspiration for The Moon Is Backwards. Judite is a tough, sweet, resourceful woman, a brilliant cook and accomplished seamstress, and I adore her. She had a lot of stories to tell about growing up in the drought-stricken Northeast of Brazil and moving with her husband to help build Brasília in 1958. Her ten children had heard these stories so many times they were old hat, but to me they were enchanting. As a qualitative researcher in my day job, I saw everything through an anthropologic lens. I recorded her words in writing and asked her a lot of questions to get further details.
Judite was dyslexic but never realized it until I explained it to her. She had problems learning to read as a child, and she told me “The letters danced on the page” and “it was like the letters were moving under water.” She struggled mightily but learned to read and write. As a young woman she met João at church and they married. There wasn’t much work in the Northeast Brazilian state of Paraíba in the 1950s, so João accepted a contract to help build the new capital Brasília as an ironworker. At first Judite stayed in Paraíba with a toddler and a newborn, but she then did the unthinkable and flew to Brasília with the kids to be with João.
Intelligent, hardworking, and driven to succeed, Judite first found work washing clothes for the vice president’s wife. She and her family were living in a tent encampment, so she did the laundry in a nearby creek. As the city began to take shape, she began work ironing uniforms for the military, then became a salad chef in the generals’ dining room. She is apolitical and deeply religious, and never wavered from her devotion to Jesus and the Assembly of God. She is kind and generous, a true Christian. Judite has a quick wit and despite the challenges of aging and memory difficulties she can still land a funny zinger with impeccable comic timing.
I began to think about weaving Judite’s stories into a novel twenty years ago. I have an extensive academic publishing record, but I had never written fiction and I had no idea where to start, so it remained a vague thought in the back of my mind. Then my husband Jasiel and I visited Brazil from our home in London during the 2018 presidential campaign, amid the shocking ascendancy of far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro, a brutish former Army captain who idolizes the military and waxes nostalgic about the days of the dictatorship.
Judite was dyslexic but never realized it until I explained it to her. She had problems learning to read as a child, and she told me “The letters danced on the page” and “it was like the letters were moving under water.” She struggled mightily but learned to read and write. As a young woman she met João at church and they married. There wasn’t much work in the Northeast Brazilian state of Paraíba in the 1950s, so João accepted a contract to help build the new capital Brasília as an ironworker. At first Judite stayed in Paraíba with a toddler and a newborn, but she then did the unthinkable and flew to Brasília with the kids to be with João.
Intelligent, hardworking, and driven to succeed, Judite first found work washing clothes for the vice president’s wife. She and her family were living in a tent encampment, so she did the laundry in a nearby creek. As the city began to take shape, she began work ironing uniforms for the military, then became a salad chef in the generals’ dining room. She is apolitical and deeply religious, and never wavered from her devotion to Jesus and the Assembly of God. She is kind and generous, a true Christian. Judite has a quick wit and despite the challenges of aging and memory difficulties she can still land a funny zinger with impeccable comic timing.
I began to think about weaving Judite’s stories into a novel twenty years ago. I have an extensive academic publishing record, but I had never written fiction and I had no idea where to start, so it remained a vague thought in the back of my mind. Then my husband Jasiel and I visited Brazil from our home in London during the 2018 presidential campaign, amid the shocking ascendancy of far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro, a brutish former Army captain who idolizes the military and waxes nostalgic about the days of the dictatorship.
I asked a family member what he thought of Bolsonaro and said I was concerned about possible moves toward military rule and a new dictatorship. He looked at me blankly and said, “there was never a dictatorship in Brazil.” The military-civilian dictatorship controlled Brazil from 1964 to 1985 and I couldn’t believe my ears when this highly educated person spouted this nonsense. I was stunned, then angry, and I said, that’s it. I’m going to write that novel and it’s going to be about the dictatorship. And I enrolled in a novel writing course at City, University of London.
Writing the novel required extensive research, and it is historically accurate, from the dates and persons involved in historical events, to the days of the week and phases of the moon. I drew on my years of experience with Brazil, especially the Northeast and the capital, Brasília. I engaged my teacher and mentor Martin Ouvry to edit the final draft, which he did with a light and sensitive hand. I then passed the novel along to my 12 beta readers, who provided invaluable input.
Then came the process of querying in fall 2021. I submitted fewer than 25 queries and received one full manuscript request. The agent asked for one month to review the work, and got back to me with very positive feedback, that she “loved the book” but it didn’t fit her list, which was more commercial. This helped me realize that The Moon Is Backwards is upmarket, since I wouldn’t call it literary. I also decided that the publishing world just won’t “get” my novel, because nothing like it has ever been published in English. So I set out to crawl up another series of learning curves, and independently publish.
The Moon Is Backwards was released in eBook and paperback in July 2022 to very good reviews. It’s an ideal book club selection, and it was featured by one book club in Portugal last week; two book clubs in the US have it as an upcoming selection.
Another reason I independently published was turn-around time. I wasn’t happy waiting two to four years to see it published, even if I could find an agent and that agent was able to sell it to a publisher. I wanted to capture the zeitgeist around the upcoming election in Brazil: President Bolsonaro is pitted against leftist former president Luis Inácio Lula da Silva (simply called Lula), and concerns of potential January 6th-like violence or an outright coup d’etat have been in the media for months. So many in Brazil now deny that a dictatorship ever existed, and voice nostalgia for the order and stability they believe a dictatorship represents. And what is better than fiction to help people recognize reality?
After The Moon Is Backwards was released in English, the next task was to publish it in Portuguese as soon as possible. I am fluent in Portuguese but translating a work of fiction is a literary act in itself which is often unappreciated. In a stroke of good fortune, I found Berttoni Licarião through a Google search. He is a writer, editor and translator, born in the Northeast state of Paraíba, lives in Brasília, and had just earned his doctorate in Brazilian literature.
Writing the novel required extensive research, and it is historically accurate, from the dates and persons involved in historical events, to the days of the week and phases of the moon. I drew on my years of experience with Brazil, especially the Northeast and the capital, Brasília. I engaged my teacher and mentor Martin Ouvry to edit the final draft, which he did with a light and sensitive hand. I then passed the novel along to my 12 beta readers, who provided invaluable input.
Then came the process of querying in fall 2021. I submitted fewer than 25 queries and received one full manuscript request. The agent asked for one month to review the work, and got back to me with very positive feedback, that she “loved the book” but it didn’t fit her list, which was more commercial. This helped me realize that The Moon Is Backwards is upmarket, since I wouldn’t call it literary. I also decided that the publishing world just won’t “get” my novel, because nothing like it has ever been published in English. So I set out to crawl up another series of learning curves, and independently publish.
The Moon Is Backwards was released in eBook and paperback in July 2022 to very good reviews. It’s an ideal book club selection, and it was featured by one book club in Portugal last week; two book clubs in the US have it as an upcoming selection.
Another reason I independently published was turn-around time. I wasn’t happy waiting two to four years to see it published, even if I could find an agent and that agent was able to sell it to a publisher. I wanted to capture the zeitgeist around the upcoming election in Brazil: President Bolsonaro is pitted against leftist former president Luis Inácio Lula da Silva (simply called Lula), and concerns of potential January 6th-like violence or an outright coup d’etat have been in the media for months. So many in Brazil now deny that a dictatorship ever existed, and voice nostalgia for the order and stability they believe a dictatorship represents. And what is better than fiction to help people recognize reality?
After The Moon Is Backwards was released in English, the next task was to publish it in Portuguese as soon as possible. I am fluent in Portuguese but translating a work of fiction is a literary act in itself which is often unappreciated. In a stroke of good fortune, I found Berttoni Licarião through a Google search. He is a writer, editor and translator, born in the Northeast state of Paraíba, lives in Brasília, and had just earned his doctorate in Brazilian literature.
His dissertation investigated Brazilian literary works and cultural memory of the dictatorship. His translation is so good it makes me weep, and I can honestly say my novel is better in Portuguese, just as I had imagined. The Portuguese translation is a lua ao avesso, and I have high hopes for its success. My ultimate fantasy is to have it made into a telenovela or series in Brazil. It’s ideal for that—but I guess every author thinks their book would be a great movie or series.
I live in Portugal’s Algarve, but I’m off tomorrow for Brasília, and I have a book release event scheduled for December 1st at Sebinho, the largest and most influential independent bookstore in Brasília. Wish me luck!
Justine Strand de Oliveira
I live in Portugal’s Algarve, but I’m off tomorrow for Brasília, and I have a book release event scheduled for December 1st at Sebinho, the largest and most influential independent bookstore in Brasília. Wish me luck!
Justine Strand de Oliveira
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