O Garimpeiro
By Bernardo Guimarães
Cover: Pico do Itacolomi, Ouro Preto (1894), painting by Aurélio de Figueiredo (1854–1916) · Wikimedia Commons · Public domain (artist died 1916)
Bernardo Guimarães opens in the lovely country of Araxá, Patrocínio and Bagagem in Minas Gerais, where the garimpeiros, the free diamond-hunters, work the rivers. The novel follows a young prospector, love, rivalry and the lure of the stone, with an eye for the landscape of the interior. This book uses the racial and other slurs of its period as written; the Book Guide explains these words where they occur.
Summary written with Claude Sonnet 5.5.