In the Shadow of the Hero

“In the Shadow of the Hero is one of those sweeping novels that introduce successive generations of a great family against the backdrop of the history of a great city. This hero, whose unsettling shadow looms, Otávio Gonzaga Santos, an illustrious scientist of the early decades of the 20th century, sows his beneficial seeds for the future. But, altered by this profound shadow, his descendants contend with destiny, playing their cards in the vibrant setting and society of Rio de Janeiro at that time.

Throughout the narrative, the family myths, rolling like a magic ball, reveal countless facets and, by their effect, the turbulence and conflicts of preceding generations reverberate in those that follow. A book without a central figure, the multiple characters form within it like a net cast to span space and time, a net that unites them by strong bonds, sometimes of affection, sometimes of repulsion. Two brilliant novelistic figures stand out in the course of the novel.

Pacheco, the Portuguese emigrant who makes his fortune in Brazil and lays the foundations of the family of which he will be the patriarch; and his grandson Tadeu, of an impetuous and triumphant character, driven by a Faustian nature, both by the insatiable love he pays to the power of technology and by the excessive project he forms within himself.”

António Vieira

Gilda Oswaldo Cruz, born in Rio de Janeiro. Has lived in Lisbon for many years. Concert pianist. Worked as an editor in Brazil and in her country's Diplomatic Service, having directed the Center for Brazilian Studies in Barcelona for several years, the city where she lived in the 1980s and 1990s.

As a concert pianist, she has dedicated herself to promoting Brazilian music in recitals, radio programs, and conferences. "IN THE SHADOW OF THE HERO" is her first novel (Rio de Janeiro, 2010; Lisbon, 2024). She has published translations and reviews, and an ecological fable titled "THE CASE OF THE STOLEN PEANUT" (Rio de Janeiro, 2016).