Pedra Canga.

• Author: Mujica, Barbara
• Position: Books: mishaps, myths, and antimodernism

Pedra Canga, by Tereza Albues. Trans., Clifford E. Landers. Los Angeles: Green Integer, 2001.

Pedra Canga is a tiny community in the Brazilian wetlands where the mysterious coexists with the mundane. Beset by poverty, the townspeople cling to myth and superstition. Their collective obsession is the Mangueiral, a spooky estate owned by the Vergare family. One night, in the midst of a torrential storm, Veronico Vergare dies, and then, in the midst of another, the whole estate washes away. Or maybe not. It depends on who you ask.

Tereza Albues's narrative technique is as engaging as the stow itself. The author utilizes multiple narrators, each of whom interprets events differently. As soon as the reader is hooked on one version, another narrator interrupts and offers an alternate. The people of Pedra Canga just can't agree about anything concerning the Mangueiral, except that Veronico Vergare inherited the property from his father, Colonel Totonho Vergare. Beyond that, everyone tells, a different stow. Some say that the lands originally belonged to Antonio dos Anjos, who was ambushed and killed by the Vergares' henchmen, after which his wife, Maria dos Anjos, withered and died. Others say that Maria herself was behind the plot. According to some, Maria was a saint; according to others, she was a demon. But most people think that very strange things went on at the estate before it was inexplicably washed away.

Tereza, a young writer and the granddaughter of the town bard, Ze Garbas, decides to investigate the matter and, to this end, interviews the inhabitants of Pedra Canga. Marcola, one of her primary sources, seems to be something of a clairvoyant or conjurer endowed with paranormal powers.

For years the people of Pedra Canga lived in awe of the Mangueiral, where the Vergare family reputedly practiced bloody, satanic rituals. On stormy nights strange sounds emanated from the manor house, perhaps the screams of victims.

One object of conjecture is Nastacio, Veronico's son by a slave girl. Nastacio lived at the estate, ignorant of his origins and serving his own father as a slave. In the midst of a storm he disappeared, but the townspeople can't agree about what happened to him. Was he sacrificed? Did he escape? Another is one-eyed Nivalda, house servant and alleged witch, who runs through town scaring the children. Did Veronico put out her eye in some demonic rite? Or was she injured in an accident? On the night of the first great storm...