Northeastern dystopia portrays political and environmental collapse

In “Os Interiores,” João Matias imagines a dystopian Brazil scarred by militarism, climate crisis, and social decay.

Published by Editora Patuá, the author’s debut novel uses dystopia as a lens to examine Brazil’s recent history. Set in the country’s Northeast, it portrays a devastated nation on the edge of collapse — where politics, society, and nature are all breaking down.

Matias says the book was inspired by “years of neglect, violence, hatred, and social and climate injustice” between 2018 and 2022. In this fictional world, military coups solidify, authoritarian power expands, and whole populations are treated as threats.

The story follows environmental refugees — people expelled by drought and erosion. The government’s response is chilling: concentration camps modeled after early 20th-century “government corrals,” reviving a violent chapter of Brazilian history.

The landscape itself becomes a central character. Expanding sinkholes serve as metaphors for a country in collapse. “Everything is tied to environmental and political neglect,” says Matias.

The novel also exposes how hatred and dehumanization become normalized. “City dwellers open fire on the migrants,” the author writes, summarizing the pervasive brutality that defines the book.

Structured as a “road book,” the story places readers in the back seat, watching the devastated geography and the displaced pass by. The result is a haunting, cinematic journey through a fractured land.

For João Matias, writing the novel was also an act of defiance. “It’s my way of settling scores with the militarized government we once lived through,” he says. “Os Interiores” forces readers to confront the past — and the future — of a country on the edge.

Photo: Divulgação