“Carrara’s sensitive, observant novel . . . Through its creative approach to storytelling and unusual form, The Loneliest Tree in the World shines a sympathetic light on the real-world effects of economic and environmental injustice.” —Megan Elliott, Bookreporter
“The inanimate narrators’ voices are distinctive and revelatory . . . the characterizations of the family members are nuanced and intimate. Each person’s history, desires, and concerns are explored in detail through their interactions with the narrators and each other. Their dramatic interactions are punctuated by deep lyrical and philosophical reflections by the silent nonhuman observers. About resilience, fragility, and the subtle, often unspoken bonds that sustain families, the moving novel The Loneliest Tree in the World is centered by a community that clings to hope despite ecological and economic challenges.” —Bella Moses, Foreword Reviews
“Carrara makes clever use of her narrator’s birds-eye view on the family . . . An arresting exercise in naturalism.” —Publishers Weekly
“A tender, keenly observed portrait of life and loss on a tobacco farm in rural Brazil. What Mariana Salomão Carrara, and translators Alison Entrekin and Julia Sanches, have accomplished with this formally inventive novel is nothing short of extraordinary.” —Bruna Dantas Lobato, author of Blue Light Hours
“Hypnotic. It takes us to meet other voices, beyond the suspicious machinations of humans—other humanities, where the secrets of human family relationships are unveiled in alternating observations of the omnipresent voice of the Tree, which sees and knows everything about our indetermination and misery.” —Ailton Krenak, Folha de Sao Paolo
“A piercing and exquisite study of love under the pressure of economic exploitation, environmental hazards, and psychological fracture. Mariana Solomão Carrera is a writer of exhilarating formal inventiveness, and translators Alison Entrekin and Julia Sanches approach the novel’s polyphony with tenderness and rigor. The Loneliest Tree in the World casts a sharp, sweet light on the vulnerability of human bonds.” —Robin Myers, National Book Award-winning translator of We Are Green and Trembling
