Land Without Evil
by Matthew Pallamary

Land Without Evil by Matthew Pallamary (Los Angeles, Charles Publishing, 2000) captures the heart and taps into the spirit. His is the writing of an imagery shaman who conjures characters who vividly enact the beauty and tragedy of the BO world as it is confronted by other levels. Because Pallamary has been in the field with the modern-day families of the Guarani, the people he writes about in this elegant anthropological fiction, he speaks from his heart about theirs.

The story is set in 1758. The Guarani, a tribe in South America whose language is still prevalent in Paraguay, struggle to hold onto their ancestral ways despite the efforts of their new Jesuit Missionary neighbors to "save" them from their own 'savage' ways. In the process, Jesuits attempts to protect the Guarani from Spanish and Portuguese settlers result in invasion of their lands. This is a tale of aggressive DQ monotheism using CP enforcers against a BO society.

The story is heartbreakingly similar to the contemporary erosion of many remaining indigenous cultures, except that today more blatantly ER multinationals use the CP exploitative forces in the attack. For those who have seen the Spirits of the Yellow Leaf People and know the story of the Mlabri, or who have followed events as the U'wa sacred lands fall under Occidental Petroleum's control behind the might of the Colombian military, or care about the Native American peoples' who were similarly exploited, the issues of our BO brothers and sisters become even more poignant and urgent after reading this book. Although this story is fiction, the plight of the Guarani is still very real and brilliantly conveyed through Pallamary's writing. If you are looking for a story with passion and soul, if you want a book that takes you away and allows you to slip into the BO mind, then Land Without Evil is both an escape and a journey. It will transform you.