قصة الكتاب :
“The Devil to Pay in the Backlands” is a novel by the Brazilian writer João Guimarães Rosa. It is a long novel that contains no chapters or subtitles. The story is told in the words of its protagonist Riobaldo as if it was a memory tape and some kind of confessions of the gang wars waged by conflicting armed groups for a long time wreaking havoc all over the land. At the same time, the novel reflects the history of Brazil and Latin American countries and their people. This history is symbolized by the passages where the events of the novel take place. Those passages often converge and diverge, just like the gangs and their leaders do. The major comment that critics have given on this novel is its obvious complexity, which reflects the complexities of the Latin American situation. Also, the linguistic complexity in the novel reflects the skill and culture of an author who has fully mastered 7 of the world’s languages.
The story’s events take place in the plains of Rio São Francisco in the state of Minas Gerais in north-west of Brazil. The story’s protagonist is Riobaldo who tells his long story to an anonymous and silent listener coming from the city. Riobaldo is born into a middle-class family and, unlike most of his contemporaries, receives an education. This enables him to begin his career as a tutor to a prominent local rancher, Ze Bebelo. and he watches as Ze Bebelo raises an army of his own jagunços to stamp out several of the local bandit gangs.
Riobaldo’s work in the ranch does not last for long since, for reasons that are never fully clear—apparently a desire for adventure—he disappears from the ranch and defects to the side of the bandits under the leadership of Joca Ramiro. Due to his excellent aim, Riobaldo becomes a valued member of the band and begins to rise in stature. In the course of the events Riobaldo gets acquainted with Diadorim, who we later find out is someone from his past who used the name, \"Reinaldo\". Diadorim is a young, pleasant and ambivalent fellow jagunço. The two start a profound and subtly homoerotic friendship. Throughout the book it is hinted that Diadorim is Joca Ramiro\'s nephew or illegitimate son.
Ramiro\'s gang attacks Ze Bebelo’s ranch, and his men defeat and capture Ze Bebelo. but after a short trial, Bebelo is released. The war is temporarily over, but news later comes that two of Ramiro\'s lieutenants, Ricardão and Hermogenes, have betrayed and murdered him. As a result, the victorious army splits in two, Riobaldo staying with the current leader, Medeiro Vaz. When Vaz dies of illness, Ze Bebelo returns from exile and takes ownership of the band. They survive a lengthy siege by Hermogenes\' men, but Ze Bebelo loses the taste for fighting, and the band is idled for nearly a month in a plague-ridden village. When this happens, Riobaldo mounts a challenge and takes command of the band, sending Ze Bebelo away.
Riobaldo, who has mused on the nature of the devil intermittently since the beginning of the book, tries to make a pact with the devil. He goes to a crossroads at midnight, but is uncertain as to whether the deal has been made or not. The fight between the gangs continues. He kills the first lieutenant who killed Ramiro, then Diadorim kills the other one. The novel ends with Riobaldo being lonely, sad and heartbroken, and the reader is left with one question: Who is the devil? And what was the pact? There is no clear answer other than the fact that Riobaldo abandoned education which symbolizes the abandoning of mind and humanity, and that war is, in its own right, a pact with the devil.




A novel written by Gao Jimaras Roza and narrated by “Riopaldo”, a teacher and a former gangster in the steppes of Rio Sao Francisco of the State of Minas Gerais in Brazil in the early twentieth century. At the beginning, we listen to the memories of old Riopaldo, who has become a farm owner, as he narrates his story to an imaginary companion whose name we’re never told and who does not say a word as if the narrator is talking to himself. This work of literature is based on the continuity style, just like all other stories and tales, whereby the whole piece is one unit that does not include any chapters, or paragraphs or any discontinuity between the events. Interestingly, the Brazilian Museum keeps one photocopied page of the original text in Portuguese, the country’s first language.
Riopaldo carries on narrating his story and tells us that he was born to a middle-class family, and that he actually received some education, unlike other children of his time. His education qualified him to work as a teacher for a farm owner called “Zee Bibello” who forms an army of mercenaries to subdue many of the local gangs in the area. But, for no clear reason, or perhaps motivated by the love for adventure, Riopaldo, the teacher, suddenly disappears from the farm and joins one of the local gangs in the area under the command of “Jukka Ramiro”.
Desiring to fulfill a high goal, Riopaldo soon became a distinguished member of the gang and his rank started to go higher and higher. And in the course of events, Riopaldo becomes familiar with a nice man in the gang called “Diadorm” whom we discover later on that he used to know the teacher by the name of “Rinaldo” in the past. By time, the two develop a strong friendship and a homosexual relationship, but Ripaldo only says that the man is one of his relatives, his nephew or his illegitimate son. During a fight Ramiro’s men capture Zee Bibello and beat his army. However, they release him after a short trial after which he travels to a remote place. At this stage, war comes to a temporary halt. But, two of Romiro’s officers betray him and eventually murder him, and incident that leads to the split in the victorious army into two separate and rival gangs. At this time, Zee Bibello returns from his exile and assumes the leadership of one of the two gangs.
The novel’s events start here, on the conflict’s scene, while Riopaldo narrates the past events from his own memory through what is called “Flashbacks”. However, after a while, Zee Bibello grows tired of the war and eventually gives it up after he lost his farm. Riopaldo assumes leadership and sends Zee Bibello away.
The author says that from the very beginning Riopaldo was thinking of the Devil, though in intermittent periods. Therefore, he seeks to strike a deal with him and heads toward a crossroads in the middle of the night. But, throughout the novel, it appears that Riopaldo was not very sure if he had actually stroke a deal with the Devil or not. Riopaldo continues the fight against one of the two gangs and does not stop until he kills its leader, the officer who betrayed his master. Then, he goes on to fight the second gang and his young friend, Diadorm, kills the second traitor but dies as well leaving Riopaldo a lonely person. At this stage the novel is concluded, and it is full of mystery, whether in its facts or title. Did the author mean that Riopaldo’s abandonment of education and involvement in the fight was in itself a deal with the Devil?!
The reader does not know, and the author himself never clarified.