A review by mariafernandagama
A Vida Invisível de Eurídice Gusmão by Martha Batalha

4.0

I was skeptical at the beginning, but as the story moved on and I fell harder and harder in love with the characters, I had to admit I was liking this a lot. I love how everybody gets a background story that allows us to understand what makes them tick and why they behave the way they do. My favorite part is when a character gets to heaven and we're told that the saint guarding the gate was ugly and had missing teeth back on Earth, and the saddest bit for me is when Guida (by far the most interesting character, with the most interesting journey) lies to her sister to hide the worst things she faced along the way. And I couldn't help but noticing the similarities between Eurídice and my elderly sewing teacher, and old Brazilian lady born in the 30's that got married because she had to (she really wanted to go to college) and spent her life mastering her skill in sewing away from the world, hiding her glory in her tiny little apartment, where she cut and measured and worked tirelessly until her hands started to falter. She once told me she always sewed, but started doing it obssessively after her husband died, leaving her depressed and with too many thoughts on her head, which she could only dissipate through nonstop hand work. I feel like there are so many ladies, old and young, like this out there. Geniuses in their fields, closed in on their domestic environment, invisible to the world, to the press, to history books. I wish young girls everywhere could have a different life than this and be encouraged to thrive in whatever they chose to do with their minds and bodies, but I know this isn't the reality, at least nor for everybody. But I sincerely hope that one day in the future people can read this book and be shocked and apalled that things were once this way, I hope its ideas are completely foreign to them, and very distant from the lives they experience.