The Devil to Pay in the Backlands, the great Brazilian novel by João Guimarães Rosa, is long out of print. This book is a watershed of language and longing. It deserves to be rescued from the cult to brave the flow of the mainstream.

A new translation, by Gregory Rabassa, was supposed to be in the works(?). But a republication of the old translation will be welcome rain. ( )

What Rosa does whith the language in incredible! Is like a huge poem. And the relashionship between Riobaldo and Diadorim the most poetic in all literature; quite like that in Shakespeare's sonets. A different kind of friendiship, much deeper. ( )