TEHRAN – Major Iranian publisher Saless has recently published a Persian translation of Jean-Christophe Rufin’s novel “Brazil Red”.

Foruzan Ghaffarian is the translator of the historical novel originally published in 2001. 

“Brazil Red” tells the story of two orphaned children, Just and Colombe, who are dragged off on the French colonizing expedition. The intent is for them to learn the native languages and act as interpreters. 

Everything in this novel is outsized: the setting, a jungle still populated by cannibals; the characters, including Ville Gagnon, the expedition’s eccentric leader, who might be a model for Cyrano or d’Artagnan; and the events, a dress rehearsal for the Wars of Religion ten years in the future. 

Packed with portraits, landscapes and action, “Brazil Red” is a novel about coming of age and discovering love. 

On a deeper level, the story follows the destinies and decisions of Just and Colombe, presenting two conflicting views of man and nature: on the one hand, a conquering European civilization, offering liberation but delivering death; on the other, the Indian world, with its sensuality, its harmony, its sense of the sacred, its continual call to happiness.

Photo: Front cover of the Persian edition of Jean-Christophe Rufin’s novel “Brazil Red”.

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