The Backlands is a translation of Euclide da Cunha's work Os Sertoes, a non-fictional account of the War of Canudos in Brazil during the 1890s. The deadliest civil war in Brazilian history, the conflict was between the Brazilian government and a rebellious village of 30,000 Canudos living in the northeastern state of Bahia, led by Antonio Conselheiro, a religious zealot. Far from being simply an objective journalistic account, Da Cunha's story shows both the significance of this event and the complexities of Brazilian society.