Amazonia

"Amazonia" is an extraordinary book of Brazilian folk tales that combines the authentic voice of Munduruku, an Indian who grew up in the Amazon rainforest, with the imagined Amazon of Russia's foremost children's book illustrator. Mermaids, serpents, tigers, snakes, flying men, witches -- extraordinary creatures from the world's most important jungle live on in these tales. The stories are fascinating, and sometimes startling, as protagonists are killed off or transformed into animals -- or rise up precipitously into the heavens. More than just rollicking adventures, they offer a panorama of experience -- conflict and death, love and seduction, greed and gluttony, hunting and fishing, cooking and caring for plants -- and describe the origins of the natural world. Munduruku's storytelling and Popov's imagination bring us the tales of the people of the Amazon in all their magic wonder.