It Is Wood, It Is Stone

by Gabriella Burnham

With sharp, gorgeous prose, It Is Wood, It Is Stone takes place over the course of a year in São Paulo, Brazil, in which two women’s lives intersect.

Linda, an anxious and restless American, has moved to São Paulo, with her husband, Dennis, who has accepted a yearlong professorship. As Dennis submerges himself in his work, Linda finds herself unmoored and adrift, feeling increasingly disassociated from her own body. Linda’s unwavering and skilled maid, Marta, has more claim to Linda’s home than Linda can fathom. Marta, who is struggling to make sense of complicated history and its racial tensions, is exasperated by Linda’s instability. One day, Linda leaves home with a charismatic and beguiling artist, whom she joins on a fervent adventure that causes reverberations felt by everyone, and ultimately binds Marta and Linda in a profoundly human, and tender, way.

An exquisite debut novel by young Brazilian American author Gabriella Burnham, It Is Wood, It Is Stone is about women whose romantic and subversive entanglements reflect on class and colorism, sexuality, and complex, divisive histories.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Brazil, LGBT, Queer, Adult

224 pages, Hardcover

First published July 28, 2020

About the author

Gabriella Burnham is the author of Wait and It Is Wood, It Is Stone, which was named a best book of the year by Harper’s Bazaar, Marie Claire, Publisher’s Weekly, and Good Housekeeping magazines. She holds an MFA in creative writing from St. Joseph’s College and has been awarded fellowships to MacDowell, where she was named a Harris Center Fellow, and Yaddo. Her nonfiction writing has appeared in Harper’s Bazaar. She and her partner live in Brooklyn with their two rescue cats, Galleta and Franz.

Reviews

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

"For the first time in a long time I had a special friend and a special event. I was nervous . . . " -- Linda, on page 73

I plucked It Is Wood, It Is Stone from my library's new release shelf initially because its cover artwork was so colorful and mysteriously intriguing. Skimming the condensed information on the inside flap I saw it was the first novel for the author. It sounded good enough to me, so let's take a chance on it!

I'm glad I did - this was one pleasantly self-confident debut, with a streamlined story that kept me reading (I finished it in only two days) because it felt like plot could conceivably turn in any direction. Linda is a married American woman in her early 30's who has recently lost her job as a newspaper writer. She is also thinking of separating from her professor husband Dennis when an opportunity unexpectedly comes their way - Dennis is offered a one-year position at an esteemed university in the metropolis of Sao Paulo, Brazil. The couple moves south of the equator and is supplied with a furnished apartment AND a housekeeper named Marta. Linda quickly becomes bored - as she has no job and no responsibilities at 'home' - so she ventures out where she meets Celia at a dive bar.

I liked that at first there was a subtle undercurrent of uneasiness or dread, as Linda - who doesn't speak Portuguese - could possibly walk onto the wrong street of this foreign city or become mixed up with someone harboring ill intent. However, it doesn't go that predictable route but instead is more about how Linda truly learns something both about and from these two different Brazilian women (through conversations and a 'lost weekend'-styled jaunt) that helps her redefine how she'll live her recently fluctuating life. It's a relatively low-key book, but it was an insightful one. Author Burnham, who is Brazilian-American, has stylishly crafted an intimate and sympathetic little story.

[luce (cry bebè's back from hiatus) · Rating 2 out of 5]

❀ blog ❀ thestorygraph ❀ letterboxd ❀ tumblr ❀ ko-fi ❀

Aside from its pretty cover It Is Wood, It Is Stone doesn’t have a lot to offer. It is one of those novels that is very much all style, no substance. Plot and character development are sacrificed in favour of gimmicky narrative devices and flashy metaphors. I finished this less than a week ago and yet I have retained almost nothing about its story or its characters. Not a great sign.

The novel is narrated by Linda, a bland American woman who follows her husband, a professor (?), to São Paulo after he’s given a yearlong teaching position there. Linda refers to Dennis as ‘you’, a gimmick that gets old fast (the kind of literary stunt that is more suited to a creative writing class). Anyhow, Linda isn’t sure if she still loves her bland husband but she nevertheless follows him because why not. In Brazil, Linda has to adjust to having a maid, Marta, an older woman she finds fascinating because of reasons. She then meets a woman in a bar and allegedly falls for her. More navel-gazing ensues with a few sprinkles of a half-hearted social commentary. The narrative doesn’t really provide much insight into issues of class, race, and sexuality. It thinks it does but really, the author is more intent on impressing their vibrant language on us (which often consists in clichéd imagery involving blood or the abject body and fake-deep realizations). The author doesn’t do much with her setting either. Much of the novel takes place indoors, which could have worked if our protagonist Linda had been an interesting narrator but her observations managed to be both dull and predictable. The author’s portrayal of marriage dynamics also failed to engage me. The author doesn’t maximise her story’s domestic setting, and rather than painting a convincing portrait of an increasingly disaffected married woman she presents us with a series of digressions (on the body, dreams, sex) that amount to nothing. The affair she has with this woman was rendered in such a vague manner that I never really bought into it. It seemed a plot-device more than anything.

There is nothing subversive or original about this novel. If you don’t mind affected and purply language, maybe you will find this more rewarding than I did.

[Kasa Cotugno · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part confession, part memoir, Gabriella Burnham's debut is a slender novel, an examination of a woman's coming to self awareness in ways she couldn't foresee. Linda looks back on the year spent with Dennis, her husband, in São Paulo, Brazil, where he had been granted a position in the local University. Ironically, she finds about this move on the very day she had decided to leave him, and sees this as a chance to reboot her life. Which it does. The story spins out in the form of a missive Linda writes to Dennis years after the events have taken place. The writing is clear, the characters, most notably the women, original and believable. Stands to reason since she has a dual Brazilian/American citizenship, and several of the women mentioned in her acknowledgements share names with minor characters.

[Inquisitive Bookworm · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a fellow Brazilian-American myself, it's rare that I find contemporary authors who also fit this identity. Needless to say, I was beyond excited to read IT IS WOOD, IT IS STONE earlier this year, and it did not disappoint. In addition, as someone who has lived in São Paulo, I think Burnham perfectly captured how race and class are inextricably linked in this city, and often ignored by the wealthier, predominantly white side of town. I did, however, find the main character (Linda) to be somewhat annoying, though I suppose that was the point. She is so self-absorbed and blinded by her "American-ness" that she indirectly refuses to learn and respect the Brazilian culture (but again, this seemed like an implicit criticism by the author on the type of person that Linda represents). The only reason I'm giving this a 4-star rating and not a 5 is because I prefer novels with likable protagonists so that I feel like I have someone to root for, but I do want to acknowledge that unlikeable characters are just as important when telling certain kinds of stories. With all that being said, I still highly recommend this book and wish that narratives about Brazil and its culture were more widely circulated in the American publishing industry.

Than you to the publisher and NetGalley for the free book in exchange for an honest review!

[Lily · Rating 3 out of 5]

It needs to be said upfront: Gabriella Burnham's descriptions of life in São Paulo, Brazil are exquisite. It's a beautiful novel from that perspective.

It Is Wood, It Is Stone is a mix of stories rolled into one: It's the tale of a grown-ass woman named Linda still trying to find herself, the opposig class dynamics with her housekeeper, her deteriorating relationship with her husband, and the fact that everybody else is living their lives far outside of her orbit. Linda is supposed to be an aggravating character—she's very much an American abroad and one who centers herself in all things while also dealing with very real pain; as the reader, you both understand her and hate her.

This is an interesting—and quick—debut from Burnham, and I'm interested to see what else she publishes. I wish this book had a tiny more oomph to it, but it was a solid literary read nonetheless.

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

After a while it just felt like a white people problems story and she was the person I didn't care about. Not to my tastes at this time. Amazing cover though.

[disco · Rating 4 out of 5]

...you cannot sacrifice your family for a taste of something new.

[Hannah // Book Nerd Native · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was absolutely wonderful. A story about forgiveness, and getting lost to find yourself. The writing was exquisite, and the tone was so unique to anything I have ever read before. The Brazilian backdrop was also stunning, and one of the most enjoyable parts about the narrative. I thought the length was perfect, considering this was more of a relationship/character study. Any longer, and it would have lulled, but any shorter and there wouldn't have been enough time for development. It really was just lovely!

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

I must say, I uncharacteristically allowed myself to be excited going into It Is Wood, It Is Stone due to the fact that Brasil is very near and dear to my heart and that I, unfortunately, so rarely come across Brasilian-American authors. My excitement was especially piqued after learning that the title was a direct translation of a lyric from the famous song “Águas de Março."
**Any textual references made unfortunately will not include page numbers, since I read the novel in digital format.

To her credit, Burnham's writing style is highly fluid and engaging. I relished her consistent use of imagery, even with seemingly run-of-the-mill objects and situations. It quickly became apparent that writing prowess is not her Achilles Heel. These attributes paired with what felt like chapters of optimal length, made a large portion of the reading experience enthralling and swift.

Unfortunately the experience curdled for me more or less halfway through, when it became more glaringly obvious that I was reading a narrative centered on a disgruntled, self-centered, middle class American woman looking to "find" herself in a far-flung paradise. Though this theme might appeal to some, it was particularly unsavory to me that it was juxtaposed with the starkly contrasting reality faced by Marta, and the Black Brasilians Burnham means her to embody.

As a Brasilian, Burnham is undoubtedly aware of the injustice and racial discrimination Black Brasilians have faced both historically and presently in Brasil, and the barbaric conditions Black Brasilian women are often subject to working in priveleged households. This plays out not only within the confines of said households, but also in Brasilian news and media as of late, exposing deplorable treatment from employers and unreliable wages without the protection of government or explicit law.

It's as if Burnham attempts to only superficially speak to these complexities, thus all but glossing over this deep-seated historical institutionalization of exploitation. The fact that Black Brasilians have been relegated to forced labor for centuries, has only been thinly reconfigured to fit a modern-day context relegating Black Brasilian women, for example, to working as maltreated domestics. And although there, of course, is always the rare (albeit unlikely) chance for an exception to every rule and norm (i.e., a maid somewhere in Brasil who is treated exceptionally by her employers, well-paid, and genuinely respected), this overt history makes the forged allyship and (eventual) friendship Burnham attempts to paint between Linda and Marta plumb unlikely. The frustrating use of stereotypes to insinuate characters' (including Linda's, at times) suspicions that Marta practices some kind of generic witchcraft (Chapter Nine, Chapter Seventeen) only further underscores this.

That we as readers are to actually believe Marta would viably have impulse or opportunity to sit her white employer down and recount the intimacies of her life and family history, replete with an analysis of why she, like the women in her family before her, has become a maid (Chapter Twenty-Four) is preposterous. What's more, at the end of the novel Linda "[makes Marta] promise that she would call [them in the United States] to tell what she learned [regarding the removal of her cancerous tumor]." (Chapter Twenty-Nine) Although Burnham fought arduously to convince the reader of this, to say it was far-fetched that Linda and Marta would somehow be penpals of sorts, was laughable at best.

All of this was simply too much for Burnham to tack onto her overarching narrative of dalliance and abandon. As a result, her attempt at depth instead came off as oversimplified (underscored by Dennis' cursory explanation of how "in Brazil everybody has [a maid]," Chapter Three) and improbable. The narrative's forced pairing (and attempted melding) of these two distinct realms of circumstance and experiences was just palpably incongruent. Burnham should've chosen one or the other, as it was highly unlikely that she'd be able to deftly take on both.

Another of It Is Wood, It Is Stone's missteps for me, was Burnham's approach to writing the novel as if it were a long letter of sorts from Linda to Dennis - a confession of her sabbatical romps, after the fact. This especially did not ring true, given that by book's end there was little-to-no cohesive resolution of any major storyline (including theirs as a couple). Also, I assume that the reader was to infer that this was maybe a novel that Linda actually penned, since it was mentioned earlier in the text that she had some fleeting interest in writing (Chapter Five)? Because I started to feel more and more disenchanted with the novel as I read on, the title also started to feel misplaced. As is often the case with direct translations into English (without consideration for sentiment), clunkiness prevails. I found this very much to be the case with It Is Wood, It Is Stone, but even more so, what Burnham attempts to convey by employing that particular lyric just doesn't seem to fit.

Though textually no direct significance is given with regard to why that came to be the book's title, it does happen to be a reference to a dancing scene between Linda and Celia in Paraty in Chapter Twenty-One that marks a significant shift in their relationship. The song itself speaks to the fluidity of life and how its passage can be surveyed (or easily taken for granted) with ensuing commonplace experiences. And although my interpretation is that the narrative is meant to depict Linda's embodiment of this as her time in Brasil progresses, it still somehow felt ill-fitting (not to mention unwieldy).

Some bothersome and unexplained (though seemingly insinuated that they eventually would be explained sometime later in the text?) odds and ends: the underdeveloped explanation as to exactly how or why Dennis came to know Brasil intimately "stud[ying] there as a teenager" (Chapter 1); the actual reason Linda and Dennis have no children (Chapter Two); the underlying root cause for Melinda's odd fixation with Marta (Chapter Nine).

It Is Wood, It Is Stone hovers between 2 and 2.5 stars for me. Linda wasn't much of a likable protagonist for me - she's consistently petulant, emotionally immature, and petty (Chapter Five, Chapter Seventeen), often viewing herself as a victim. Yet somehow in spite of how It Is Wood, It Is Stone devolved and the text's deficiencies, Burnham's writing strength does give me hope for more cohesion and better execution of narrative depth in her future works.


Noteworthy lines and passages:

"You had told me before that São Paulo was not the tropical paradise on postcards; it wasn’t the pictures of women on the beach with fruit baskets on their heads. High-rise buildings traced the horizon and favelas extended for miles on both sides of the highway." (Chapter One)

"The pink morning sky hovered just above the buildings, as if the city had somehow been raised to the clouds, or the clouds lowered to it." (Chapter One)

"She asked what the paper was about. I told her I hadn’t finished reading it. You had given it to me in starts and stops while you were drafting...But when it was eventually published, I never sat to read it in its entirety. Part of me felt more comfortable relating to the process than interpreting the finished product." (Chapter Two)

"Water thumped in the shower like dead piano keys,..." (Chapter Five)

"That night, you returned home with the flitting energy of an emptying helium balloon and began recounting your day as soon as you walked through the door." (Chapter Five)

"You heated pasta in the microwave and brought it back to the couch. I could smell the reheated meat, ripe like an old dish sponge, steaming from the bowl." (Chapter Five)

"... until I realized that experiencing São Paulo alone, guided by old tourism pamphlets, felt like observing the city through backward binoculars, distant and warped." (Chapter Six)

“She reminded me of a flower that had been pressed inside a book to preserve its beauty, so she had to present herself at an angle to mask her flatness." (Chapter Nine)

"The apartment sparkled like sugar: white curtains draped in a slinky cursive, Lucite chairs and marbled surfaces, several jade Buddhas smiling from side tables." (Chapter Fourteen)

"Pai liked these trips because he liked to be alone, even when he was around people. I saw myself in him. A snail rolled into a shell." (Chapter Twenty-Four)

"So how did I become a maid? It’s a question I asked myself for years, until I realized that the question had flattened my sense of being, that the question bore the weight of centuries, and even fate didn’t have the courage to answer to it. Why should I?" (Chapter Twenty-Four)

"...his belly strained the opal button on his collared shirt. I couldn’t help but watch it, like a soft-boiled egg being pressed with the side of a fork" (Chapter Twenty-Six)

"You told her you were nervous about forgetting the small pleasures that you had grown to love in Brazil, pleasures that would surely evaporate with time. The rich tang of the coffee, the wisp of a storm wind on a humid afternoon, the students who shared with you their personal histories, how beer in São Paulo was served so cold the cans would burn your lips." (Chapter Twenty-Nine)

[Flora · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is wood, It is stone is a thrilling read. Gabriella Burnham’s writing style is visceral, cerebral and absolutely captivating. This is a book to be devoured in one sitting.

[Katie.dorny · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was boring. And pretentious. Not for me.

The above also demonstrates the variety of sentence structure I experienced whilst reading this.

Following the lives of three women connected by an expat living whilst he husband works at the university for a year; we basically read a boring fucking diary.

And a lady who can’t admit she’s bi.

Overall a book lacking plot, gripping writing style and characters you can like.

[Verónica Fleitas Solich · Rating 5 out of 5]

So delicate, so sweet, so intense.
a pleasure to read.

[Lauren · Rating 1 out of 5]

The use of queerness in this book made me feel weird. A fling with another woman provided for Linda a temporary escape from her tired relationship with her husband. Linda described her experience with Celia as an adventure, as if having a relationship with another woman is a novelty, as if she was using Celia’s queerness for her own desperate wish for an escape. I didn’t turn spoilers on because I want other queer women who are interested in this book to know that it doesn’t offer good representation like I thought it would.

Also, Marta’s story was beautiful, but why was it pushed to the very end of the book? I wish Marta had been the protagonist.

[Onceinabluemoon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this but by 50% I didn’t want to continue, just felt a disconnect the entire time...

[Sumitra · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a luscious ride. I inhaled it. Gabriella Burnham shows a penchant for creating apt yet poetic metaphor, lucid interior life and vibrant, suspenseful scenes.
She also troubles the trope of a young, (white) American woman discovering herself in the Global South. Her writing peels back the skin of relationships to expose awkward class tensions, gendered expectations and longings for intimacy cross-wired with sexual curiosity. She contrasts perspectives of race and class experience, their privileges and exclusions. She illustrates all these intersecting dynamics with restraint, exploring how they live in bodies, in lives and boldly engages the recovery and strengthening of trust and love in the midst of it all, right alongside loss and betrayal.

[Emma Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was … fine. We follow an American woman living in Brazil and struggling to adapt to the culture. The writing is fine, the plot is fine, the characterization is fine. But nothing blew me away.

[Reagan Formea · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5
Fav chapter was Marta’s life story. I would read a whole book about her<3

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slow build for a short book, but I really ended up loving this one. Its a treasure. Its different and it takes a little getting used to. The author often uses a second person, yet intimate form of writing, as she (inside the narrating characters head) is often speaking her story to and in relationship with her husband, who she is both extremely connected to and disconnected with. The story is of her connections and disconnections with herself and others, and of connection and disconnection to her location. It's kind of a lost and found, where found is always evolving and in danger of loss again. Come to think of it, I have no idea why the book is named It Is Wood, It is Stone.

The center of the book is Linda, but there are all these side characters, particularly Marta, who matter. Eventually, the stories of the other's, particularly Marta, begin to unravel and unfold, and you begin to see that everyone has a story that gets them to where they have landed, and that those stories remain unfinished. This book has a certain kind of different feel. It also has scents and smells, and sounds, and textures, and a misty ethereal sense to it, while all the characters appear to be looking for ground. And the ground is in these moment by moment experiences themselves. It's different and I am glad that I read it. I think its going to stay with me for a bit.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

*Thank you to Random House Publishing Group and Netgalley for giving me this eARC in exchange for an honest review*

It Is Wood, It Is Stone is written as a woman writing a letter to her husband in reflection of their time living in Brazil. It focuses mainly on the narrator/main character Linda as she questions her purpose in life, explores her sexuality, and interacts with women she meets along the way.

I was excited to read this one as the Brazilian setting sounded interesting as well as the fact that this book is labeled as LGBT. I found the writing to be beautiful and the descriptions of food & Brazilian life to be wonderful, but unfortunately the rest of this book missed the mark for me.

For starters, I couldn’t stand any of the characters in this book except maybe for Marta. The main character especially drove me crazy. She was constantly making horrible decisions without much remorse, as well as lying and keeping secrets from the people around her. Because this whole book is written from the perspective of the main character, I just ended up not really caring about what was happening. This book was largely character driven, and I found that hard to enjoy when I didn’t connect with any characters.

On top of that, there really wasn’t much of a plot throughout the book. I thought some decisions Linda made would come up later in the book resulting in some kind of conflict, but everything just seemed to be swept under the rug for the most part. Even the sexuality part of the plot fell flat for me and wasn’t at all what I expected from this book.

Overall, I didn’t connect to this book like I’d hoped to. Even though the writing style was beautifully descriptive, I just didn’t find the story very compelling and the characters fell a little flat for me. I might recommend this book simply for the descriptions of Brazil, but as a whole this book just wasn’t for me.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the atmospheric way Burnham wrote and described one of the most well known cities in Brazil. In fact, I’m really happy this wasn’t set in Rio but São Paulo instead. Cities that aren’t on the coast need more recognition too. As a woman of Brazilian heritage, it warmed my heart to see Portuguese written and utilized authentically on page. It took me a minute to realize that Linda was writing to her husband and occasionally switched from second to first person.
We meet Linda & Dennis, a white couple who live in Brazil for a year thanks to a job offer extended by The University of SP. Linda thinks this will be a fresh start but unfortunately, when they are settled in, she realizes she has nothing to control. Not even the cleaning and cooking. Marta, the maid assigned to work for the couple, takes those reins.
I think we’re supposed to read from the pov of the comfortable white tourist because she has the voice of someone who isn’t sure how to handle life away from her comfort zone. How else was she supposed to act? It would have felt fake if she were automatically woke. She does meet a few people, Melinda and Celia, that shake her up a bit. Melinda reminds her of the type of woman Linda doesn’t want to be. Celia on the other hand is someone that Linda gravitates towards. This novel does explore Linda’s sexuality, the class / race issue as well as the life of the privileged vs the marginalized.

I wanted a little more when it came to Marta but I really did enjoy this and look forward to more from this budding author.

[ម៉ូនីក · Rating 4 out of 5]

such beautiful writing that enveloped me whole. i found so many parts of me here... like the part where linda talks about how she feels disgust/confusion at her husband, a harvard phd taking a teaching residency @ a university in brazil, who has seemingly changed as he kisses the provost's ass? i laughed. the tenderness that she seeks/the woman she is so innately captivated by, who makes her feel more alive/more whole? the urge to disappear? to forget? to reinvent? it really was as if i was seeing myself written on the page—except written so poignantly and viscerally.

some side notes—i don't think i fully understand how the relationship b/w marta and linda developed, but hopefully i will because i'm undoubtedly going to reread this book. i do wish that there was more of marta though. she is so important & even though we do get to see her story, i am afraid that she functions as a crutch for linda's relationship more than anything else.

celia also comes off entirely as a manic pixie dream girl. looking back with this in mind, especially because she is black, the book falls somewhat flat for me now. the writing remains atmospheric and beautiful but i'm unsatisfied with celia and martia seeming to be nothing more than crutches to linda's development...which is extra interesting considering that they are also black and/or poor.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a lovely debut novel! At first I wasn't sure I would like it as it starts out slowly with the narrator, Linda addressing everything to her husband, Dennis (addressing him as "you). He has accepted a position as a professor in Sao Paulo, Brazil and she has been contemplating leaving him as she feels somewhat adrift in their marriage. When they arrive and discover they have Marta, a maid who comes with the apartment, Linda is flustered as she is used to cooking and keeping the house as she had left her job when they married. Later, she meets Celia, a woman who is beguiling to Linda as she exudes confidence and an aura that Linda is attracted to as she is in a foreign country and feels lonely and not really "seen" by her husband. This "secret" friendship escalates and soon things spiral out of control as Linda feels her life falling apart. What I loved about this novel was the slow burn of relationships changing and evolving because we know that no relationship can survive stagnancy. And as Burnham puts it, "...we were shaping our broken branch into a boat that, eventually, would float us down the river toward forgiveness." It's ultimately the tale of three women whose lives intertwine and each is changed by friendship and love. I look forward to her next novel!
Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!

[Brenda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Linda and Dennis are moving to Brazil for a year so Dennis can accept a teaching position at the university in São Paolo. The opportunity to temporarily leave their life in New England feels to Linda like the perfect way to escape her increasing feelings of being lost, unhappy, and unsure of herself. Once she gets there, however, she realizes what she is facing is a crisis of identity, not of place. With the help of Marta, her housekeeper, and Celia, a woman she makes at a bar after a bout of depression, Linda goes on a literal and figurative journey to find her way back to herself and her marriage. It Is Wood, It Is Stone is a beautifully written page turner, so engrossing that I read the whole book in one day (basically one sitting). Gabriela Burnham’s novel is overflowing with with vibrant, complex female characters who have profound impacts on one another’s lives in a way that feels so REAL. Even though my life is vastly different than all three of the story’s female main characters, at the end of this book, I felt seen, and also in some way healed. Big thanks to Net Galley and Random House for this truly enjoyable read I’m exchange for my honest opinion.

[Sharon Huether · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dennis and Linda traveled to Brazil. Linda does freelance writing and Dennis is a history professor.
Linda can't seem to find her place. They have a maid, Marta, which Linda is not used to having someone do things for her.
Linda connects with Celia and tries to learn Portuguese.
There came a time when Linda and Marta began to talk. It was only then when Marta told her story that Linda count understand her.
This book lacked cohesiveness

I won this free book from Goodreads First reads.

[Marcy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meanderings of a young privileged woman, trying to figure out her place as an expat nonworking wife of a visiting professor in Sao Paolo. Interesting setup, but too much navel-gazing for my taste.

[Annika · Rating 5 out of 5]

I keep vacillating between 4.25 and a 4.5 but I'm gonna give it a 4.5 (rounded up to a 5) because I don't think one of my qualms is the author's fault.

I'm giving this book its props because I haven't felt engrossed like this book with a fictional book in a while. I probably read 100ish pages in one day and finished the whole thing in about three. The writing style is BEAUTIFUL and it's the foundation of the book for me. I love the idea of writing it all as a recollection of Linda's time in Brazil, addressed to her husband. There was some really beautiful imagery, and I felt each character was very strongly and intimately defined and added to the plot.

I've never read a book set in Brazil before, and so I really felt transported to the country reading this, and you could tell it was written by someone who thinks fondly of the country but can address its faults. Personal opinion but I also love the idea of setting it in the mid-2000s which made it feel more like a wandering travel story (rather than integrating social media and what not).

My qualms with the book were that the ending was a bit abrupt and very...idk packaged? Like it was wrapping a pretty ribbon around a perfect gift; I think I wouldn't liked it (personal preference) if it had a bit more open-endedness/grit, like a chance encounter with Celia or something.

The other tidbit was that I'm not sure if the book took the time to really focus on how Marta, the maid, and Linda become closer? I think the book could've taken 20 or 30 more pages to develop that, especially since that's how the book is advertised. However, I don't think the book synopsis is determined solely by the author so I won't fault her for that.

Overall, definitely a contender for one of my favorite books this year! Its writing is something I'll be thinking about for a while.

[Joi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Disclaimer: Won this in a Goodreads giveaway!

Some books are about the characters, some books about the plot- this book is about the writing. This book too me straight to São Paulo, Brazil, and gave me the sticky-hot feeling that I was there, and now I want to travel there for vacation. Driven by one central character, and written in 2nd person (done EXTREMELY well, 2nd person is tricky to navigate and do properly), I was hooked in the mind of Linda, and enjoyed the ride in her brain.

Married couple Linda and Dennis move to São Paulo, Brazil for a teaching residency. Dennis is away at work for longer and longer periods of time, and Linda at home alone begins to go through a self-discovery of sorts. She tries to befriend the housemaid- Marta, whose story later learn, and meets a new friend Celia at a bar on a rainy day who gives Linda an entire new outlook on the city and their situation.

The prose and language is descriptive and feelings-focused, emotive with an airy tone, almost poetic- but still focused and novel-like. I feel like the writing was what MADE this book. I enjoyed weaving the themes of class, expatriation, politics, gender studies, sexuality, all into the nice neat narrative of Linda. The ended was super abrupt, but you can tell that is done on purpose. I could have used a little more reflection on things. At less than 200 pages, it's a nearly riskless investment for a wonderfully written book.

[Samantha Freeman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not really sure what to think. The plot didn’t really go anywhere and I got a bit irritated by what felt like overly forced poetry-like lines to make me think I was reading something deep and meaningful.

[Jill Dobbe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Narrated in the author's voice, a couple moves to Sao Paulo, Brazil, so the husband, Dennis, can take on a professorship at the local university. The wife, Linda, finds herself at odds; lost on how to fill her days. She slowly gets involved with two Brazilian women, one being her maid, and another she meets in a bar, developing a friendship which she keeps from her husband.

Burnham's writing is thoughtful and captivating. She is a Brazilian-American and brings to readers aspects of Brazil that tourists don't usually see. Despite the fact it took me awhile to figure out who the "you" was in the book, I enjoyed the author's depictions of Sao Paulo andthe Brazilians she met over the year she spent there..

[Trina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, that was gorgeous.

So much to appreciate from craft perspective. Loved the Brasil of it. Felt the Justin Torres influence.

Wishy-washy narrator grows and redeems herself in such lovely ways that you forget how annoying and depressing the middle of the book is.