Crooked Plow

Crooked Plow: A Novel by Itamar Vieira Junior

Free blacks live and farm on a plantation by a river in Brazil. The narrator's grandmother and her son have served as the spiritualist and healer for the community. One day the narrator and her sister play with a knife they find and one cuts off her tongue while the other injures hers. This leads one to communicate for the other. They are close together. However, this closeness is hurt when another accuses one of kissing a cousin. They both marry at young ages and one goes off to learn to be a teacher, while the other is in an abusive relationship.

This experience of traditional life is then tied with "modern" life. Landlords prevent the tenant farmers from building brick houses. They exert control of what they do. A new landlord buys the land on the cheap (due to the existing farmers) and works to remove them. The husband of one of the girls is involved in union organization. He is killed. The police perform a superficial investigation, and pin the death on the deceased's "drug activity".  Later that landlord is killed. The people eventually get some recognition. We also learn the history of the knife and the past cruelties and revenge from the family.

The story jumps around a bit in time and does help present the conflicts between traditional and modern society. The traditional beliefs and patterns by people are far from perfect. However, they do serve them well. It is difficult to solve the problems without also ripping apart the positive glue that holds the society together.