The salt of the earth

O Sal da Terra narrates the adventurous life of Father António Vieira, especially in Bahia and the Amazon, among the Tupi tribes, focusing on the man's feelings rather than the thinker's theories. It highlights his hope for the advent of the Fifth Empire in 1666, his imprisonment by the Tribunal of the Holy Office, his friendship with King D. João IV, his intimacy with Mundé - the Tupinambá who followed him everywhere - and his tolerance towards Sefina, a Mandinka mãe-de-santo. In this wonderful novel about one of the most emblematic figures in national literature, we witness a life full of nationalist dreams until 1667 and laden with disappointments until the protagonist's death thirty years later. Admired only as a preacher during his lifetime, Father António Vieira saw himself as the most failed Portuguese man of all time - none of his dreams came true, all his prophecies were frustrated, all his political plans failed, and all his glory was posthumous.