O Amazonas Escuro

A novel by Eugene Garber

The acclaimed ethnographer K lives with the Roirua-peo in their compound on the Amazon. After a successful period of study, both his work and tribe's survival are threatened by the persistent journeys upriver of evangelists, adventurers, artists, and the ideas of well-known philosophers. Eventually, the arrival of a Herzog-esque German filmmaker and his deranged and volatile star destroy the balance of tribal life and lead to a surprising – and irrevocable – climax.

"Eugene Garber reveals a hitherto obscure fact: some of the greatest philosophers of the Western canon penetrated into the Amazonian jungle, there to blend with current anthropological discourse and with the timeless, flesh-and-blood texts of the aboriginal cultures. Musical, absorbing and gem-like, O Amazonas Escuro sparkles in the dark."
Ricardo Nirenberg, author of Wave Mechanics: A Love Story

"Fasten your seatbelts for a wild ride! Garber juxtaposes an Indiana Jones-type ethnographic adventure among traditional Amazonian Indians with a profound reflection on the great themes in Western philosophy."
Gary Gossen, author of Four Creations: An Epic Story of the Chiapas Mayas