"Gestalt in the Shadow" is a novel about the man who accompanied Alexander von Humbolt on his journey to South America. Although Humboldts reputation was highly acclaimed at the time, the French doctor and botanist, Aimé Bonaplan was overlooked in Germany. His outstanding role as a natural scientist has been marked by the naming of a mountain peak in the Andes, a crater on the Moon, an asteroid and a plant species in his honor. Bonaplan had a significant influence on the Enlightenment during the French Revolution, and later became the botany teacher of Napoleon and manager of his Maison de Malmaison Castle. Together with Humboledt he explored tropical South America and spent many years living in the southern part of the world near the end of his life, first highly respected and then neglected in Buenos Aires. For years he lived as a prisoner of the dictator of Paraguay and finally as a landowner on tobacco planters in Brazil and Argentina. The author lyrically describes the story of this extraordinary human being with a sensitive and dramatic touch. The novel, which was published in Brazil a few months after its first edition in Brazil, connects a carefully researched and fact-filled narrative
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