Into the Amazon: The Life of Cândido Rondon, Trailblazing Explorer, Scientist, Statesman, and Conservationist

This stirring biography by Rohter (Brazil on the Rise), the former Rio de Janeiro bureau chief for the New York Times, chronicles the achievements of Brazilian Renaissance man Cândido Rondon (1865–1958), an accomplished explorer and the namesake of the Brazilian state of Rondônia. Rohter’s cradle to grave treatment masterfully weaves the disparate strands of Rondon’s eclectic life, beginning with his childhood as an impoverished orphan. Rondon enlisted in the army at 16 and later became an army engineer, receiving national plaudits for overseeing the construction of telegraph lines through the Amazon to connect disparate regions of Brazil. Emphasizing the significance of this accomplishment, Rohter compares it to America’s transcontinental railroad and suggests it helped Brazil transition from “a haphazardly organized empire to a modern republic.” The author also describes how Rondon, himself of Indigenous descent, founded Brazil’s Indian Protection Service in 1910 (for which Albert Einstein nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize) and posits that Rondon’s expeditions through 25,000 miles of wilderness (including leading Theodore Roosevelt’s “River of Doubt” trip) make him the “greatest explorer of the tropics in recorded history.” Rohter’s thorough research and eye for detail make for a vivid telling of a remarkable tale. This is a trip well worth taking. (May)