โA lush depiction of privilege and power, sex and stability . . .ย following three women in Sรฃo Pauloย . . .ย It Is Wood, It Is Stoneย is an elegant arrival of a new talent.โโElleย
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Good Housekeeping โข Marie Claire โขย Harperโs Bazaar โข Publishers Weekly
With sharp, gorgeous prose, It Is Wood, It Is Stone takes place over the course of a year in Saฬo Paulo, Brazil, in which two womenโs lives intersect.
Linda, an anxious and restless American, has moved to Saฬo Paulo, with her husband, Dennis, who has accepted a yearlong professorship. As Dennis submerges himself in his work, Linda finds herself unmoored and adrift, feeling increasingly disassociated from her own body. Lindaโs unwavering and skilled maid, Marta, has more claim to Lindaโs home than Linda can fathom. Marta, who is struggling to make sense of complicated history and its racial tensions, is exasperated by Lindaโs instability. One day, Linda leaves home with a charismatic and beguiling artist, whom she joins on a fervent adventure that causes reverberations felt by everyone, and ultimately binds Marta and Linda in a profoundly human, and tender, way.
An exquisite debut novel by young Brazilian American author Gabriella Burnham, It Is Wood, It Is Stone is about women whose romantic and subversive entanglements reflect on class and colorism, sexuality, and complex, divisive histories.