Ancient Tillage: Raduan Nassar

`I felt the powerful strength of my family overrunning me like a heavy rush of water`

For Andre, a young man growing up on a farm in Brazil, life consists of `the earth, the wheat, the bread, our table and our family`. He loves the land, fears his austere, pious father who preaches from the head of the table as if it is a pulpit, and loathes himself, as he starts to harbour shameful feelings for his sister Ana. Lyrical and sensual, told with biblical intensity, this classic Brazilian coming-of-age novel follows Andre`s psychological and sexual awakening, as he must choose between body and soul, duty and freedom.