The Devil to Pay in the Backlands by Joao Guimaraes Rosa

Introduction

Riobaldo, an old jagunco (bandit) of the Brazilian sertao, tells his life story across 600 pages of hypnotic, invented language. Joao Guimaraes Rosa's The Devil to Pay in the Backlands (1956) is one of the most linguistically inventive novels ever written—a work that bends Portuguese into new shapes to capture a world of jagged beauty and violence.

The Sertao as Universe

The sertao is not merely a landscape but a metaphysical condition. Riobaldo's journey through banditry, love for his companion Diadorim, and a fateful pact with the Devil becomes a meditation on good, evil, and the nature of existence. Rosa's prose is dense with neologisms, archaisms, and musical rhythms that English translations can only approximate.

Key Takeaways

• Language creates worlds
• The sertao is everywhere and nowhere
• The Devil may not exist—and that is the real terror