The year was 1987, the city of Berlin, capital of Germany, was divided by a wall that prevented anyone from crossing to the other side and the rubble of the Second World War could still be seen in the streets. In this scenario, Bruno Fischer was just a failed and divorced musician, who worked as a taxi driver just to pay the bills, but never for pleasure.
He knew that taking Ingrid Bergunson Tavares, a Brazilian passenger from the Western side to the Eastern side, took risks, but he did not expect that trip to take him to the other side of the Atlantic. It is in Brazil that the reader unravels the mystery of Além da Fumaça, such as the illegal trade in works of art stolen from Jews by Nazi troops.
From the world historical context of the Cold War period and the emergence of neo-Nazi groups, the writer Edvaldo Silva includes a canvas by the baroque painter Peter Paul Rubens to the plot. It is the search for the work that culminates in the disappearance of the Brazilian, responsible for the theft, and makes the German Bruno Fischer leave his own country to help Amanda Bergunson find her mother. Check out the interview!
Reliving a remarkable moment in world history, his book “Além da Fumaça” portrayed the scenario of 1987, more precisely the time of the Berlin Wall. What led you to choose this moment as the basis for your narrative?
We are currently experiencing the strong echoes of the end of the Cold War, the period in which my book is set. This current scenario of the war between Russia and Ukraine is putting the world on alert again, and it seems that we are going back to the time before the fall of the Berlin Wall, which is now settling on Russia’s border with the western world. This whole scenario has repercussions in Brazil, just as the Cold War had a lot of influence here.
That’s why I think it’s important for Brazilian readers to revisit such an important time for all of humanity, when there was a breath of hope in the air, but the world was still divided and marked by the end of World War II. A very interesting period.
In my book, “Além da Fumaça”, I revisit the sufferings left over from the Second World War in a society about to tear down the last wall that divided the world. And against this backdrop, we follow an electrifying international plot with dangerous secret organizations, a relentless pursuit of a stolen painting, a mysterious Brazilian woman in Berlin and a taxi driver and musician who gets involved with her and has her life turned upside down.
In the same way that this moment that followed the period of the Second World War, the war in which Germany also participated served as a context for several stories, and in the description of your book, you use this element when you say that the rubble of the war still existed . Regarding these themes, would you say that using them as a reference has still been a good bet in pop/literary culture?
Absolutely! Much of what we are and live in our world today comes from the great transformations that took place in these important periods of our history. These great moments are very rich in terms of inspiration for works of fiction for everything they represent in terms of drama, overcoming, struggle, joy, sadness, love, personal suffering and even of entire peoples. And it is important that we always revisit our past to prevent these great atrocities committed by ourselves from being repeated.
In his narrative, we are introduced to the protagonist Bruno Fischer, a failed musician, divorced and who worked as a taxi driver to support himself, however, without pleasure in everyday life. Could you talk a little more about how the context of this character came about?
I wanted to tell the plot from the point of view of an ordinary citizen, a real person, with dreams and frustrations, living in a historical period and in a very interesting city. Berlin is fantastic! Cosmopolitan, full of history, but at the same time very open to the world’s news. Until today, this period is an important mark for the Germans, and for all humanity, which was the construction, and after many years, the demolition of the wall that separated the city in two.
To build the character, actually, it helped a lot that I’m an amateur pianist. Knowing the perrengues of those who embrace the dream and decide to live from music, I managed to create a very realistic character that moves perfectly in the plot. I wanted to give a hopeless touch to this phase of Bruno’s life, but at the same time, with a touch of music and poetry. He is approximately 40 years old, a German like many others who lived in the poor neighborhoods of the south of West Berlin in the late 1980s.
Serious by nature, he hardly smiles. One fine day Bruno decides to stop his life as a pianist in bars at night, giving in to pressure from his wife Helga and father-in-law Ivar, he decides to buy a taxi, a black Mercedes Benz, model 230, with money borrowed by Ivar, and drive through the streets. Berlin streets. Bruno is already entering middle age and gives up on his dream of being a great pianist. He separates from his wife Helga Müller and their two young children, Karl and Johann. Bruno hates his father-in-law Ivar, who has always been against marriage.
His life changes when he responds to Ivar’s request to transport a Brazilian woman named Ingrid to the eastern side of the wall. This Brazilian woman disappears and her daughter, Amanda, asks for his help to find her. These events force Bruno to take a stand, decide for him and for Amanda, solve the mysteries, and at the end of it all, take back his life too.
Diving further into the historical context of the division of the city of Berlin, Bruno ends up agreeing to transport a Brazilian passenger from the western side to the eastern side, even knowing that he would run serious risks. At this point in your story, although Bruno was aware of the risks, would you say that his acceptance of this adventure was fueled by his dissatisfaction with his life?
Exactly! Bruno lived a life without many hopes or joys, apathetic and already settled for putting aside his dream of being a great pianist. Out of shame or dismay, he stopped interacting with his younger children. The arrival of Amanda, Ingrid’s daughter, completely changes his life. He ends up liking that Brazilian girl, smart, strong and determined. This moves Bruno forward and makes him make decisions, act fast and help her solve Ingrid’s disappearance.
After disagreements, deaths and betrayals, Bruno and Amanda leave for the decisive confrontation with the person most interested in Rubens’ painting, Gunther, son of the former Nazi officer who stole the painting from the Jewish family in World War II. Clóvis, a Mossad agent, goes into action mobilizing security forces and agents across South America to capture Gunther and his father. In the end, Amanda manages to discover Ingrid’s whereabouts and Bruno has to decide whether to take back the reins of his life in Germany or start a new one in Brazil. It is a transformative journey for Bruno, Amanda and our reader.
When we write works and texts that take place in such remarkable contexts, as this one was, one of the great care that authors usually have is with the veracity of the facts and their representations. What were the main challenges this book presented during your writing process?
I had to do an intense and very detailed research to be able to set the story well. I researched street names, important politicians of the time, the music that was playing, news of that moment, everything to leave a perfect environment for the unfolding of the plot. This whole environment is the backdrop for a beautiful suspense story. That is, the setting has to be perfect, so that all the elements can move very fluidly and in a believable way for the reader. Therefore, when writing a historical novel, it is essential to do a very detailed research.
Despite the fact that the beginning of the story manages to capture the readers’ attention, it becomes engaged from the moment that the duo Bruno and Ingrid cross the Atlantic Ocean and end up involved in the context of the illegal trade in works of art stolen by Nazi troops. Does dealing with an extermination group that killed millions of people during wartime become something delicate, even in a literary narrative?
Absolutely! You have to be very careful with the narrative so that it is not, in any way, the glorification of an unimaginable atrocity like Nazism was, especially for the Jewish people, which I have a lot of admiration for. These people, who were persecuted for ages, gave us great names in all areas of human knowledge, contributing strongly to our cultural and scientific evolution.
I think I was very happy with the construction of the narrative. Even though they are not the central characters, Solomon and his son Clóvis, who are Jewish, are very present in the book, where I managed to finish in a breathtaking way in a mixture of redemption and reparation, but leaving that feeling that we still have a lot to do to fight this kind of evil that haunts us to this day.
I share with you one of the scenes that I think are the most beautiful in the book. The conversation between father and son about everything that happened:
“Her family was then separated, the older sister died while still crossing, in a freight car; He didn’t hear from his younger brother for decades, until he discovered that he had died in a field in France, shortly before the end of the war. The mother and father were killed in Treblinka after passing through several other slave labor camps. He survived until he was rescued by American troops in Dachau, at the end of the war, and after living in Israel for a few years he emigrated with his family to Brazil, fleeing the Six Day War in 1967.
Solomon wept, and Clovis cradled his father’s head against his leg.
“It’s over, Dad. We avenge our family.
“Ah, my son,” moaned the old man, “the blood does not always dry, and some open wounds never stop hurting.”
From the context of the Cold War, you ended up including in the plot a painting by the painter Peter Paul Rubens, which we soon discover that it belonged to the collection of a Jewish family stolen by a Nazi soldier and which is now the target of the search for his son Sebastian Gunter, including the suspected kidnapping of the Brazilian. What was the inspiration for creating this antagonist and why the decision to involve the underground art market in the story?
In this research on the Nazis and on this remarkable period of our history, I went deeper into the theme of the theft of works of art that they made from Jews in Europe. I discovered that the paintings by the painter Peter Paul Rubens were part of a plundered collection of a Jewish family. That is, always seeking the greatest veracity and the perfect setting. Sebastian Gunter is perfect for the whole plot, he is one of the most striking antagonists.
Another hidden antagonist, and a very important one, is the old mobster Ivar, Bruno’s father-in-law who has connections with the neo-Nazis. It is he who calls Bruno to make the fateful race to the other side of Berlin.
But back to Gunther, he is German, 40 years old, lives in a mansion in Chile and is the son of the Nazi soldier who confiscated all the paintings of a family of Jewish origin, in Hungary, during the Second World War. Among them a painting by the baroque painter Peter Paul Rubens, which Gunther would be the buyer. Gunther wants at all costs to recover this work with an important meaning for his father.
Starting from an ingenious narrative and with clues being released little by little, his work manages to capture the readers’ interest. Regarding the experience of writing it, can we say that you managed to live those same emotions? Which audience would you recommend your book to?
I believe that “Além da Fumaça” will mainly appeal to people who are passionate about suspense, action, police mystery and readers who like books set in another era. And of course, passionate about Brazilian literature, teachers and students of History, Literature and Journalism, for example.
Title:Beyond the Smoke
Author:Edvaldo Silva
Pages:208
ISBN:978-6556252957
Format:14 x 11 x 21 cm
Price:BRL 59.90
Sale link:amazon
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