The above sentences are not quoted from Stefan Zweig'sBrasilien: Ein Land der Zukunft (Brazil: A Land of the Future, 1941). Amerigo Vespucci made this statement in a letter to his friend and client Lorenzo de Medici. Since Brazil's discovery by European voyagers in April 1500, this land has been as intrinsically linked to the Garden of Eden as it has been believed to be the promise of a great future. Almost from the start, an image of Brazilian society which emphasized its highly cordial and hospitable nature, as well as its apparently harmonious multi-racial society was promoted. These notions were passed down through the centuries and often considered to be the essence of Brazil, which appealed so much to the refugee writers who emigrated there to escape persecution by the Nazis. Many of them dealt with their country of exile in their works. However, there is no portrait of Brazil by an émigré that became as famous as Zweig's Brazil book. His hymn of praise not only decisively shaped the idea of the “land of the future,” but, together with his tragic suicide in 1942, it influenced the image of the German-speaking exile in Brazil. The phenomenal impact of his book derives from the prominence of its author. Zweig was undoubtedly the most famous émigré in Brazil— in fact, in all of South America.