São Paulo – A book conflating fiction and reality, ‘A casa síria’ (which translates freely as The Syrian house) tells the story of Merched, a Syrian national who decides to leave his country with his family to rebuild his life in Brazil in the early 20th century. Employing a poetry-like prose, the author Claudia Falluh Balduino Ferreira shares with readers the memories that were passed on to her by her grandfather, the book’s main character.
“The book retells his saga since Syria. It’s a piece of fiction, even though it contains actual data. It recounts his life from childhood until the moment he climbs aboard the ship bound for Brazil with his wife and two kids, and the moment he dies, without ever having returned to Syria,” Ferreira explains. In Brazil, Merched had six more children, who later gave him 16 grandchildren.
The author describes places and memories from his grandfather’s life, including the farm he used to live in, his mother, his father. According to her, the move to Brazil changed Merched’s worldview, but his connection with Syria remained unchanged. “Syria remained his connection with childhood, while Brazil was the land of maturity,” she says.
The writer is also the book’s narrator. She barely doesn’t appear as a character, but uses her interactions with her grandfather to tell the reader about what happened in the lives of Merched and other Syrians he met throughout his life and during the trip to Brazil.
“It is a memoir that combines fiction and actual experience in a quest for truth about the past, comprehension of the present and adjustment to the future,” she explains. She also reveals that Merched, who was born into a Christian family, left Syria to flee religious persecution. In Brazil, the world’s biggest Catholic country, he found true freedom, the author points out.
Merched departed from his city of birth, Bassir, 40 km south of Damascus, and arrived in Brazil through Rio de Janeiro in 1926, but he didn’t just settle there. He also spent time living in Rio Grande do Sul and Goiás, where he died in 1974 at age 98. "His story is a very impressive one,” says Ferreira.
In his baggage, Merched brought with him a longing for his brothers and his homeland. “He would play Arab music really loud. He was a very emotional man,” the author says. For her, the book is also a tribute to Syria, at a difficult point in time as the country struggles with domestic clashes.
The book was released in November 2015 in Brasília. It can be purchased here: http://livraria.editorakiron.com.br/a-casa-siria.html
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum