On Earth As It Is Beneath

Synopsis

Shortlisted for the 2026 International Booker Prize

”A stark, unsettling exploration of power, violence and institutional corruption that will linger long after the final page” — Booker Prize Judges

On land where enslaved people were once tortured and murdered, the state built a penal colony in the wilderness. A place where inmates could be rehabilitated, but never escape. Now, decades later, the prison is winding down. But in its final days, a new horror is unleashed. Every full-moon night, the inmates are released. The warden is armed with rifles. The hunt begins. Every man plans his escape, not knowing if his end will come at the hands of a familiar face, or from the dangers lurking beyond the prison walls. Ana Paula Maia’s most urgent and unsettling work yet is a searing allegory of power, violence and the failures of the state, from one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary Brazilian fiction.