Brazil Red

Brazil Red is a 2001 French historical novel by Jean-Christophe Rufin which recounts the unsuccessful French attempt to conquer Brazil in the 16th century, against a background of wars of religion and a rite-of-passage discovery of the charms and secrets of the Amerindian world. It won the 2001 Prix Goncourt.

Plot

The plot is set in 1555, on a small island in the Guanabara Bay of Rio de Janeiro, where a French expeditionary force, made up of sailors, craftsmen, priests, ex-convicts and a knight, has just landed. Their objective is twofold: on the one hand, to set up a French colony on this far-off continent to compete with the Portuguese, on the other hand, to convert the Indigenous population to Christianity. Ill-prepared for the realities of the New World and torn apart by theological controversy, the French see their dreams of colonization gradually dissipate.