The Land Without Death

Döblin’s extraordinary South American epic covers four centuries of
European engagement with a world of the Other. Written in exile from
the Nazis, it asks: did the Nazis really appear out of nowhere?
The first volume is a vivid, tautly written triptych of 16th century
events…….native Amazonian cultures unsettled by rumours of
conquest: Conquistador bands ravaging the gold-rich realm of
Cundinamarca: the struggle to convert Indians, in a colonial manner
that is anything but Christian. The more expansive second volume
tracks 250 years of the Jesuit enterprise in Brazil and Paraguay. Before
returning to the South American jungle at the end, the third volume
undertakes an accounting for the way Europe has developed since the
Reformation. Conjured from their graves, Galileo, Copernicus, and
Giordano Bruno are charged with starting humanity down a wrong
path away from Nature, to the miseries of 20th century urban life,
alienation, exploitation, and political turmoil.
The Land Without Death is quite breathtaking in its scope, and
exhilarating to read.