Chumbo

Centered on the saga of a mining family, Chumbo, by the Franco-Brazilian author Matthias Lehmann, constitutes a dazzling fresco of Brazilian authoritarianism in the 20th century.

In the interior of Minas Gerais, the opulent patriarch Oswaldo Wallace runs his mining companies with an iron fist. His two sons, Severino and Ramires, are only a year apart, but have nothing in common: Severino, a left-wing activist, became a journalist and then a writer, while Ramires supported the military during the dictatorship, in the period known as the "years of lead".

Inspired by the history of his family, especially his uncle, the Minas Gerais writer Roberto Drummond, Matthias Lehmann's graphic novel is an epic saga in which characters and destinies intersect and intertwine. In richly composed pages, employing caricature, advertising, and Brazilian graphic design, the author blends intimate facts with Brazilian history, over 60 years after the coup that established the military dictatorship in Brazil.

Part history, part autobiography, blending fact and fiction, Chumbo is a multi-dimensional masterpiece that questions the notion of heritage, whether filial, cultural, social or political.