Within four months, we took the book from manuscript to press. This 2000 version has been edited and revised. It's been given an overall tightening and sharpening. As well, the Silver Spring edition includes a newly written afterword that brings the story up to the present. Not surprisingly, this is epic history as prescribed by James Michener.
Brazil is no one's idea of a languorous read.
The painstaking research it must have taken to even begin work on the novel is obvious from the first page, making it no problem at all to imagine why the book's author would have gone to a great deal of trouble to see it back in print in the United States. While the historical details Uys has included give it the crackle of authenticity, Uys' characterizations lack some of the humanness that built Michener's reputation. Brazil can more easily be compared to the books that came fairly late in Michener's publishing history. More like Michener's Texas and Alaska for the pure history tinged with dryness than, say, Centennial, Space or even Poland that seemed to sizzle with the living history he was gifting us with. Being compared to the later works of a master, however, is no insult to Uys.