The Testament and The Snow-Falcon

River Pantanal, the setting of Grisham's, The Testament

Reader's Digest Select Editions, Vol 4 1999. New York: The R.D. Association, Inc.

Grisham, John. The Testament

Written in the backdrop of the Pantanal River in Brazil, Grishma draws upon the stark, cruel and hard-hitting remoteness of Brazil's reiver- homw to Indian tribals and missionaries to present a legal drama of interesting dimensions. Intertwined in Phelan, a billionaire's unexpected 'testament' is Rachael Lane, his illegitimate daughter and inheritor Nate O'Riley, a brilliant lawyer with a drinking problem, brought out of rehab to find Rachael among the reeds and banks of R.Pantanal in the outreach of Brazil's Corumba and the host of greedy and pathetic brood of Phelan's daughters and sons and wives.

Out of the courtroom battle and Nate's adventures in Brazil emerges a good story of a man reclaiming his faith and his self-esteem. The characters - Josh, Wally, Valdir, Troy, Jevy and Rachael- are each given healthy dimensions.

A simple story with a twist at the end. The beauty of the story lies in the fact that we,the readers, want Nate to find Rachael, we want Rachael to accept the inheritance, we want Nate to be happy, after seeing him fight his demons. Is that why the story is immensely readable?

Here's some interesting information about R.Pantanal from www.ridingbrazil.com

The Pantanal, known as the world biggest ecological sanctuary and largest wetland area, covers some 240.000 square kilometers of the upper Paraguay river basin. About 2/3 of it belong to the Brazilian states of Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul, extending to the west into Bolivia and southwest to Paraguay.


According to Portuguese-English dictionary, Pantanal is a "large swamp or marsh". In reality the definition is not precise. The term Pantanal is applied to a large land mass which becomes partially submersed during the raining season, covering an area of about 210.000 square kilometers in Central-Western Brazil, Eastern Bolivia and part of Paraguay. The largest portion of Pantanal, about 140.000 square kilometers lies, in Brazil, stretching over two states - Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul. By comparison, Florida Everglades has only 10.000 square kilometers.