Signed
Brasyl
Signed first American edition, 2007
Brasyl is a 2007 novel by British author Ian McDonald that weaves together three distinct timelines in a struggle over the nature of reality itself.
In 2006 Rio de Janeiro, a cynical reality television producer tracking down a disgraced World Cup goalkeeper discovers that her own life is being manipulated by a mysterious doppelgänger. In 2032 São Paulo, a hustler navigating a total-surveillance state becomes entangled with a quantum physicist whose body carries a map to other worlds. And in 1732, a Jesuit emissary treks deep into the Amazon to confront a rogue priest who has established a blasphemous and technologically enhanced empire.
Blending historical depth with speculative fiction, McDonald constructs a vision of Brazil shaped by media spectacle, surveillance, faith, and quantum possibility, revealing a multiverse policed by a shadowy trans-dimensional organization known as The Order. Winner of the British Science Fiction Award, Brasyl was first issued in hardcover in the UK by Gollancz; this is the first American edition.
Signed copy. Signed by McDonald on the title page.
Hardcover. First American Edition, First Printing. Octavo, cloth. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2007. British Science Fiction Award winner (2008). Hugo Award nominee (2008). John W. Campbell Memorial Award nominee (2008). Nebula Award nominee (2009). ISBN: 9781591025436. #11255.
Fine in fine dust jacket.
In 2006 Rio de Janeiro, a cynical reality television producer tracking down a disgraced World Cup goalkeeper discovers that her own life is being manipulated by a mysterious doppelgänger. In 2032 São Paulo, a hustler navigating a total-surveillance state becomes entangled with a quantum physicist whose body carries a map to other worlds. And in 1732, a Jesuit emissary treks deep into the Amazon to confront a rogue priest who has established a blasphemous and technologically enhanced empire.
Blending historical depth with speculative fiction, McDonald constructs a vision of Brazil shaped by media spectacle, surveillance, faith, and quantum possibility, revealing a multiverse policed by a shadowy trans-dimensional organization known as The Order. Winner of the British Science Fiction Award, Brasyl was first issued in hardcover in the UK by Gollancz; this is the first American edition.
Signed copy. Signed by McDonald on the title page.
Hardcover. First American Edition, First Printing. Octavo, cloth. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2007. British Science Fiction Award winner (2008). Hugo Award nominee (2008). John W. Campbell Memorial Award nominee (2008). Nebula Award nominee (2009). ISBN: 9781591025436. #11255.
Fine in fine dust jacket.
Additional Details
In Brasyl, Ian McDonald guides the reader through three interlinked narratives set in Brazil across three centuries, each reflecting a different mode of power, belief, and control within a fractured multiverse.
In 2006, Marcelina Hoffman is a ruthless reality television producer in Rio de Janeiro searching for her next hit. She devises a controversial program to put Moacir Barbosa—the goalkeeper long scapegoated for Brazil’s 1950 World Cup loss—on public trial. As she pursues her subject, Marcelina begins to realize that she herself is being hunted by a double: an assassin from another universe intent on erasing her from existence.
In 2032, São Paulo has become a city of total surveillance, where every movement is tracked by drones, implants, and omnipresent data systems. Edson Jesus Oliveira de Freitas, a morally flexible entrepreneur operating in the gray economy, becomes involved with Fia Kishida, a quantum physicist whose body carries a quantum-computing interface capable of accessing parallel realities. Together, they attempt to evade the reach of The Order, a trans-dimensional authority tasked with policing the boundaries of the multiverse.
In 1732, Father Luis Quinn is dispatched by the Vatican on a task described as “most difficult”: to locate and discipline Father Diego Gonçalves, a Jesuit who has gone rogue in the Amazon basin. There, Quinn encounters the curupairá, a golden frog used in indigenous ritual that allows its bearer to perceive and traverse parallel worlds, and a colonial theocracy built on both faith and forbidden knowledge.
Through these intersecting timelines, Brasyl fuses quantum physics, historical adventure, and media satire into a single speculative vision. Winner of the 2008 British Science Fiction Award for Best Novel, the book was also nominated for the Hugo, Nebula, and John W. Campbell Memorial Awards.
Ian McDonald is a British science fiction novelist whose work is known for its global scope and its engagement with technology, politics, and culture beyond the Anglophone West. Born in Manchester in 1960, he has set major works in India (River of Gods), Brazil (Brasyl), and the Moon (Luna trilogy), combining ambitious speculative ideas with richly realized local detail and social complexity.
In 2006, Marcelina Hoffman is a ruthless reality television producer in Rio de Janeiro searching for her next hit. She devises a controversial program to put Moacir Barbosa—the goalkeeper long scapegoated for Brazil’s 1950 World Cup loss—on public trial. As she pursues her subject, Marcelina begins to realize that she herself is being hunted by a double: an assassin from another universe intent on erasing her from existence.
In 2032, São Paulo has become a city of total surveillance, where every movement is tracked by drones, implants, and omnipresent data systems. Edson Jesus Oliveira de Freitas, a morally flexible entrepreneur operating in the gray economy, becomes involved with Fia Kishida, a quantum physicist whose body carries a quantum-computing interface capable of accessing parallel realities. Together, they attempt to evade the reach of The Order, a trans-dimensional authority tasked with policing the boundaries of the multiverse.
In 1732, Father Luis Quinn is dispatched by the Vatican on a task described as “most difficult”: to locate and discipline Father Diego Gonçalves, a Jesuit who has gone rogue in the Amazon basin. There, Quinn encounters the curupairá, a golden frog used in indigenous ritual that allows its bearer to perceive and traverse parallel worlds, and a colonial theocracy built on both faith and forbidden knowledge.
Through these intersecting timelines, Brasyl fuses quantum physics, historical adventure, and media satire into a single speculative vision. Winner of the 2008 British Science Fiction Award for Best Novel, the book was also nominated for the Hugo, Nebula, and John W. Campbell Memorial Awards.
Ian McDonald is a British science fiction novelist whose work is known for its global scope and its engagement with technology, politics, and culture beyond the Anglophone West. Born in Manchester in 1960, he has set major works in India (River of Gods), Brazil (Brasyl), and the Moon (Luna trilogy), combining ambitious speculative ideas with richly realized local detail and social complexity.
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