1978

1978 is not just a memoir—it is a journey into the fragile, bewildering world of childhood, where wonder and fear often exist side by side.

Set on a remote farm in southern Brazil, this deeply atmospheric memoir unfolds through the eyes of a sensitive and imaginative child growing up among cattle fields, watermelon harvests, and Catholic rituals. Here, the line between reality and myth is beautifully blurred. It is a world where whispered family legends tell of local werewolves lurking in the dark, where fields hold the promise of hidden treasure hunts, and the mysterious glass game is played with bated breath. But beneath the beauty of rural life, something dark waits quietly in the darkness.

Right after two tragic events, a six-year-old child had her life turned upside down. Unsure of exactly how things would unfold from that point on, the year 1978 marks both the end of her world and the beginning of her new life.

Told through a series of vivid, memory-driven chapters, 1978 captures childhood as it truly feels: magical, confusing, joyful, terrifying, and deeply alive. A barn becomes a sanctuary. Books open doors to entire worlds. And silence slowly takes root where a child’s voice once lived.

For more than forty years, those memories remained buried. Then, in 2020, during a moment of unexpected emotional reckoning, the little girl at the center of these stories returned—and finally began to speak.

Reclaiming the Self

Written with lyrical prose and emotional honesty, 1978 is a powerful memoir about trauma, loss, grief, family, survival, and the lifelong search for healing. It is also a story about returning to the child who endured, listened, dreamed, and waited to be heard.

For readers who love immersive literary memoirs such as The Glass Castle and Educated, 1978 offers an unforgettable portrait of memory, silence, and the resilience of the human spirit.

Some years pass. Others never leave us.