Juca Serrado, who is well known on the conference circuit as Laura Ganon’s husband, has launched his second book Sob o Olhar do Guardião (Under the Eyes of the Guardian).
It is a thriller with a fascinating story line about the construction of the statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro.
The statue is a majestic work that was built at the beginning of the 20th century, under adverse conditions (a 38 metre high statue built at 750 metres above sea level, on a platform only 15 metres in diameter), considering that building techniques at the time were precarious, with only rudimentary safety equipment. However, in the six years of its construction there were no fatal accidents. The work was inaugurated on October 12, 1931 and its illumination was turned on by Guglielmo Marconi, inventor of the radio, by an electric signal sent by him from Italy.
The plot begins in 2007 with an investigation of the authorship of the project, claimed by the family and heirs of a French sculptor hired to make the moulds in real size of the hands and head of the statue, when the Christ was considered one of the seven wonders of the modern world. A lawsuit that the French sculptor’s family moved against the Archdiocese of Rio de Janeiro, claiming copyright, united a Brazilian history teacher that worked at the National Library of Brazil and a French lady lawyer from the Académie des Beaux-Arts who came to Rio due to the lawsuit.
During their investigation, the couple discovers a connection between the construction of the statue, freemasonry and the first crusaders. The narrative splits into two: the investigation of the authorship of the project; and another that takes place during the growth of the Knights Templar in Jerusalem at the time of the crusades, and later in medieval Europe.
It’s a thriller-like romance that begins with the investigation that takes the two characters from the hillsides of Rio to the walls of Jerusalem and the south of France, in an exciting narrative, with chases, murders and betrayals. For those who like history and fiction, the book is the redemption of the huge and valiant efforts of the Brazilians who financed, projected and built the most iconic monument in South America.
Juca’s first book, The Turk (O Turco), was about the backstage of power, a romance/thriller that involves the FBI and the CIA, among other organs of international security, and is already available at Amazon.com in English, as an e-book. Soon it will also be in audiovisual format, to be exhibited on a paid TV channel (Netflix or HBO) as a series.
Photo: Juca Serrado