The Seamstress

by Frances de Pontes Peebles

Book Overview

Winner of the Friends of American Writers Award for FictionAs seamstresses, the young sisters Em lia and Luzia dos Santos know how to cut, mend, and conceal--useful skills in the lawless backcountry... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060738871
• ISBN13: 9780060738877
• Release Date: August 2008
• Publisher: Harper
• Length: 656 Pages
• Weight: 2.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Exciting Debut Historical Novel!

Many other fine reviews here have provided excellent and very detailed synopses of this book. As stated, the actions took place in the time frame between 1928 and 1935 in Brazil and follow the lives of two sisters whose lives diverged in their late teens due to fate and circumstance. The author wove the stories together along with the major events of the times in a very effective manner. The chapters were each relatively long, however, I particularly liked the fact that these long chapters were broken up into multiple sub-chapters. Each chapter focused on one sister or the other in an alternating manner. I was almost immediately swept up into the lives and adventures of each sister. Frances De Pontes Peebles did a superb job, in my opinion, of keeping the mystery and the suspense alive throughout the book by dropping little tidbits of information. Like a trail of bread crumbs I just had to follow to find out what the circumstances were that had led to this or that development. As an example, in the prologue, Emilia's husband, Degas, is dead and the family is in mourning. Yet, in Emila's story we come to know Degas - his fears and his foibles - only gradually. Similar instances are expertly woven throughout. Emilia intrigued me, nothing at the core of her existence, her horrible burden of guilt and remorse at having failed her younger sister, was ever allowed to escape for long past the placid, fashionable face that she presented to the world. She became a guiding force within the Women's Auxiliary while never actually becoming acceptable to them. The politics here was as tricky and risky for Emilia as the scrublands were for Luzia. Antonio, "The Hawk", Luzia's husband was a dark, exciting character. He had an iron will and a resolve that was awe-inspiring. His men and Luzia, dubbed "The Seamstress" because of her fine needle skills, followed and obeyed him unquestioningly and without reservation. His tutorage channeled Luzia's natural outspokenness into the assured, charismatic leader that she later became. Then, the Seamstress no longer sewed cloth but rather she kept her group stitched together through the strength of her personality and fortitude. I loved the way the characters grew and developed throughout the story. The characters came alive for me as I read about the revolution, the drought, and most especially how difficult simple existence was in the vast inland badlands even during the best of times. I have never read any book, historical or otherwise, set in Brazil. I am glad to have read this one as I found it to be entertaining as well as enlightening. With The Seamstress the author stitches the events and people together almost flawlessly in this well-written adventure set in a fascinating historical period.

"cut straight and cut fast"

"The Seamtress A Novel" by Frances De Pontes Peebles is a long book (600+ pages) but once you start turning the pages, you don't notice how long the book is. M's De Pontes Peebles' book is the story of two orphaned sisters lives againts the background of 1930s Brazil. Emilia, the older of the two, is pretty and a romantic. She longs to escape her life from Taquaritinga do Norte. She has plans to do this with her sewing instructor, Professor Celio. Luzia, the younger and more pragmatic one, believes she will end up taking care of her Aunt Sophia and becoming a spinster because of her poorly healed broken arm. Beceause of an accident when Luzia was 11, her arm healed crookedly and she got the nickname "Victrola" from the townspeople. Both are totally wrong about what lies in their future. The novel alternates between the sisters' lives during the some time period. Emilia enters into a marriage with a man she doesn't love and doesn't know anything about. Luzia is taken away by the Hawk, the leader of a group of cancageiros, to face Heaven knows what. Along the way, you can learn a lot about Brazil's history during the 1930s. I never knew that time period was so full of civil unrest. You also learn about sewing as a metaphor for life. Aunt Sopia always advised Emilia and Luzia to "cut straight and cut fast" but Emilia seems to ignore this advice. She prefers to take her time, cutting out the pattern, making a muslin and making all the adjustments prior to the final cut. Luzia obviously lives by the advice. What makes this book work for me is the way M's De Pontes Peebles is able to capture the emotional cadence of the sisters relationships. This is generally hard to do - you can look at any number of books that are supposed to focus on the sibling relationship and they don't ring true. M's De Pontes Peebles manages to capture the ambiguous love sisters have - sometimes loving, sometimes hating, sometimes jealous or disparging, but always protective of each other. That M's De Pontes Peebles manages to craft this relationship and have it play against a larger background is terrific. This is first book by a new talent and I look forward to reading more great novels from M's De Pontes Peebles. I recommend this book highly for those of you who want to really dive into a book. It is vaguely reminiscent of "Love in the Time of Cholera". It's that descriptive and takes you into the time period, the places and emotions of these siblings and how their lives play out. Buy it!

A Magnificent Epic

Luzia and Emilia dos Santos are two orphaned sisters who are being raised by their seamstress Aunt Sophia in the backwards, backwoods town of Taquaritinqa in northern Brazil. Luzia, the younger, has an elbow permanently fused at a ninety degree angle because of an accident, she fell out of a mango tree and her arm was poorly set. This causes children, then eventually everyone in the village, to call her Victrola, because her arm resembles the arm of a Victrola record player. Their Aunt Sophia wants the girls to have a vocation so she teaches them hers, plus she gets them training on the new Singer sewing machines. However, the girls don't use the skill their Aunt has given them as she'd foreseen. Emilia reads fashion magazines and dreams of a better life, so when she gets the chance, she marries a rich doctor's son and moves to big city Recife, gets her own atelier and gets to design for the upper crust. Fate has something different in store for Luzia. She is captured by bandits called the congaceiros and eventually is a victim of the Stockholm syndrome (though it's not called that yet) and does a Patty Hearst and falls for Antonio Teixeira, the Hawk, a leader of the congacerios. Okay, there you have the setup of this magnificent story which in my opinion will be considered a classic years from now, long after the oscar winning movie has been made. This story does for Brazil in the time before WWII what Gone With the Wind did for America and the time of the Civil War. The description of that time and place is so wonderful you'll believe you're there in this long book that you'll have a hard time putting down. And when you finish, you'll know you've met some people you won't soon forget.

A good book deserves a detailed review!

Overview: Here we have a novel which takes us far beyond the parameters of `women's reading'. This is an epic tale of Brazil, of interest to men and women alike. The story is conveyed through an insightful quilt-work of dichotomies and we get some great advice along the way, ergo: "Never trust a strange tape!" I can assure you now that you'll have to read through to near the end of this first-rate story to fully appreciate that sage little jot of counsel. Descriptive Summary: An actuality clearly imparted to readers of this book is that children are the same everywhere, regardless of a chronological era or of geography. After the Prologue we encounter the two dos Santos girls existing in derisory circumstances under the vigilant eye of a strict old aunt in a scrublands village of 1920s and `30s Northeastern Brazil: Taquaritinga. Early on, the younger and more tomboyish of the sisters, Luzia, experiences a great personal tragedy which defines her life's course - she falls from a mango tree while mischievously pilfering fruit and the impact of the fall leads to a minor brain injury as well as leaving her with a permanently disfigured arm. Due to a poorly-set bone by a local incompetent, the elbow becomes locked for life at a ninety-degree angle. Not long after this, while Luzia is at school and defending her elder sister, Emília, from a youthful male antagonist, the bully orally retaliates by cleverly but brutally dubbing Luzia as "Victrola," thus comparing her pathetically angled arm to the brass playing arm of the now ancient but well-remembered, hand-cranked, trumpet-speakered RCA Victor phonograph. Tragically, this sobriquet sticks region-wide and in every frequent instance in which Victrola is subsequently so addressed by the town-folk she is re-reminded of the unjust cruelty of human society. This appalling emotional exploitation generates a cumulative and injurious psychological effect on her. As I said, kids are the same worldwide, the larger point here being that the reader is immediately drawn into an empathetic relationship with the book's chief character. Is it not true that we have all been on either the rendering or the receiving end of such regrettable comments during our childhood school days? The venerable Aunt Sofia, who takes charge of the girls subsequent to the untimely death of the mother, and ultimately of the drunken shell of a father, was renowned as the top seamstress of her community. She makes it her business to see that her two wards will live to enjoy, if not a regal social status in the town, then at least an honorable one by teaching them all she knows of her craft. Aunt Sofia also sends the girls to a school of sorts where they receive formal sewing lessons on the new and complex Singer sewing machines. While at the school, Emília additionally gets her first lesson in the incongruities of love. Both girls are okay with their aunt's agenda except that Emília secretly resolves to forsake her impecunious home pla

Rich, deep read!

In this gripping novel, The Seamstress, we meet two young women, sisters. Emilia and Luzia. Girls who have known more than their share of tragedy at tender young ages. Orphaned, they are raised by their aunt and reside in a small village, Taquariringa. Aunt Sofia has not had an easy life, but she battles to raise the girls with with morals and honor. She prays everyday that the girls will realize they are flesh and blood and that all they have in this world is each other.Perhaps this is the saving grace that will bind the girls together despite this attempts to never let that happen. Her skill has always been being a Seamstress, and she teaches the girls this fine art. I was impressed the way the author blends this into her novel. The girls are as different as night and day. Emilia is like a delicate flower and loves beautiful things, while Luzia has been hardened due to a tragic accident that left her with a deformed arm. Both girls learned to pray early in life, although their methods are different, this was instilled in each of them. As time passes Luzia ,due to events not of her own making, becomes a rebel bandit and begins to battle the land barons who are cruel and evil. Emilia marries the son of a wealthy doctor and she sees that splendor is not always as beautiful as she thought it was. As time moves on in their lives, Emilia longs for the relationship of her sister and when danger lurks for her the battle is on to regain love and family. It is always inspiring to read a novel that takes you on the journey of family members, their trials, tribulations, victories and defeats. In this novel we travel deep into the very hearts of Emilia and Luzia as they desperately seek the meaning of their existence, strive for some form of fulfillment, and slowly realize the importance and bond of family. This is a well written saga with strong, well defined characters, whom you are given privy to the depth of their emotions as their life is being played out. Good plays against evil, battle lines drawn, decisions made and questioned as each girl walks towards their destiny. It is a story of loyalty, surrounded with adventure, often dripping with sorrow, and never leaving you wanting. Locals are rich in their description and other players in this novel are vivid, sometimes frightening, sometimes engaging, but always fitting into the theme of this work. A deep, rich book. One full of life, love, and longing, and one that must be slowly savored one page at a time. Be warned this is a large book, over 600 pages, one that unless you are a very quick reader you will need to set aside time to fully enjoy. However, well worth your consideration. Shirley Priscilla Johnson