Synopses & Reviews
From the great Brazilian author, an exotic tale of greed, madness, and a dispute between two powerful families over land on the cocoa-rich coast of Bahia The siren song of the lush, cocoa-growing forests of Bahia lures them all—the adventurers, the assassins, the gamblers, the brave and beautiful women. It is not a gentle song, but a song of greed, madness, and blood. It is a song that promises riches untold, or death for the price of a swig of rum . . . a song most cannot resist—until it is too late—not Margot, the golden blond prostitute who comes for love; not Cabral, the unscrupulous lawyer who works for one of the Cacao “colonels”; and not Juca, whose ruthless quest to reap the jungle’s harvest plants the seeds of his own destruction.
Review
“Swift, funny, and occasionally even slapstick.” —Rivka Galchen, from the Introduction
Review
“Delightful . . . A wonder of the art of narration [by] the voice, the feeling, and the joy of Brazil.” —José Saramago, from the Foreword
Review
"Raucous . . . Rowdy . . . Outrageous!" —The New York Times
Review
“[A] comic masterpiece . . . Darkly hilarious . . . With brilliant sleight of hand and deceptive simplicity, Amado’s defiance of death in this frothy, heartfelt tale reveals the Brazilian master at his earthy, big-hearted best.” —Shelf Awareness
Review
“Cause for rejoicing . . . Irresistible . . . Thoroughly satisfying. There’s more packed into the slender
The Discovery of America by the Turks than many a novel five times its length, delivered with zest and spice and an unashamed love of physical pleasure. Perhaps more than any other author, Jorge Amado can capture in words the simple, radiant joys of living.” —
Shelf Awareness“Delightful . . . A wonder of the art of narration [by] the voice, the feeling, and the joy of Brazil.” —José Saramago, from the Foreword
Review
"Raucous . . . Rowdy . . . Outrageous!" —
The New York Times
“Swift, funny, and occasionally even slapstick.” —Rivka Galchen, from the Introduction
“Part Virginia Woolf, part Weekend at Bernies . . . [An] excellent example of the particular mixture of folkloric elements and high-literary storytelling for which Amado is often paired with Gabriel García Márquez.” —The Wall Street Journal
"Hilarious... Deftly constructed... Hugely entertaining... Amado, like Quincas, is a hoaxer who loves to trick his readers.... [His] version of Brazil is seductive." —The Times Literary Supplement
“[A] comic masterpiece . . . Darkly hilarious . . . With brilliant sleight of hand and deceptive simplicity, Amados defiance of death in this frothy, heartfelt tale reveals the Brazilian master at his earthy, big-hearted best.” —Shelf Awareness
Review
“Funny, intelligent, often tender, not infrequently raunchy . . . The tale unfolds with twists worthy of a Shakespearean comedy, but what is truly memorable are Amado's character portraits and his vibrant comic scenes of Brazilian life. . . . [An] excellent example of the particular mixture of folkloric elements and high-literary storytelling for which Amado is often paired with Gabriel García Márquez.” —
The Wall Street Journal
“Delightful . . . A wonder of the art of narration [by] the voice, the feeling, and the joy of Brazil.” —José Saramago, from the Foreword
“Hugely entertaining . . . Amados version of Brazil is seductive.” —The Times Literary Supplement
“Cause for rejoicing . . . Irresistible . . . Thoroughly satisfying. Theres more packed into the slender The Discovery of America by the Turks than many a novel five times its length, delivered with zest and spice and an unashamed love of physical pleasure. Perhaps more than any other author, Jorge Amado can capture in words the simple, radiant joys of living.” —Shelf Awareness
Synopsis
Along with The Discovery of America by the Turks, two masterworks by the greatest Brazilian novelist of the twentieth century, published for the centennial of his birth
Widely considered the greatest work by the foremost Brazilian author of the twentieth century, The Double Death of Quincas Water-Bray comes to Penguin Classics in a new translation by the dean of Portuguese-language translators, Gregory Rabassa. It tells the story of Joaquim Soares da Cunha, who drops dead after he abandons his life of upstanding citizenship to assume the identity of Quincas Water-Bray, a "champion drunk" and bum who is whisked along on a postmortem journey that climaxes in his loss at sea.
Synopsis
Along with The Double Death of Quincas Water-Bray, two masterworks by the greatest Brazilian novelist of the twentieth century, published for the centennial of his birth
Published here for the first time in English in a brilliant translation by the peerless Gregory Rabassa, The Discovery of America by the Turks is a whimsical Brazilian take on The Taming of the Shrew that will remind readers why Jorge Amado is to Portuguese-American literature what Jorge Luis Borges is to Spanish-American literature. It follows the adventures of two Arab immigrants—‘Turks,’ as Brazilians call them—who arrive in the rough Brazilian frontier in 1903 and become involved in a merchant’s farcical attempt to marry off his shrew of a daughter.
Synopsis
Along with The Discovery of America by the Turks, two masterworks by the greatest Brazilian novelist of the twentieth century, published for the centennial of his birth
Widely considered the greatest work by the foremost Brazilian author of the twentieth century, The Double Death of Quincas Water-Bray comes to Penguin Classics in a new translation by the dean of Portuguese-language translators, Gregory Rabassa. It tells the story of Joaquim Soares da Cunha, who drops dead after he abandons his life of upstanding citizenship to assume the identity of Quincas Water-Bray, a "champion drunk" and bum who is whisked along on a postmortem journey that climaxes in his loss at sea.
Synopsis
Along with The Double Death of Quincas Water-Bray, two masterworks by the greatest Brazilian novelist of the twentieth century, published for the centennial of his birth
Published here for the first time in English in a brilliant translation by the peerless Gregory Rabassa, The Discovery of America by the Turks is a whimsical Brazilian take on The Taming of the Shrew that will remind readers why Jorge Amado is to Portuguese-American literature what Jorge Luis Borges is to Spanish-American literature. It follows the adventures of two Arab immigrants—‘Turks,’ as Brazilians call them—who arrive in the rough Brazilian frontier in 1903 and become involved in a merchant’s farcical attempt to marry off his shrew of a daughter.
Synopsis
The great Brazilian novelist's comic masterpiece—published in a new translation for the centennial of Jorge Amado's birth
Here is the story of Joaquim Soares da Cunha, a Falstaff-like character who abandons his life of upstanding citizenship to assume the identity of Quincas Water-Bray, king of the Bahia lowlife and a "champion drunk." After a decade of revelry among bums, pimps, and prostitutes, he drops dead, and his prim family gathers for a proper burial. But when Quincas's unsavory friends show up with a bottle of rum, they whisk him along on a postmortem journey to enjoy one last party—his own wake.
Synopsis
For the first time in English: legendary Brazilian author Jorge Amado's spirited novella about Arab immigrants to South America—published for the centennial of Amado's birth
Two Arab immigrants—"Turks" as Brazilians call them—arrive in the rough Brazilian frontier on the same ship in 1903, hoping to find a future. They rub shoulders with gunslingers and plantation owners, and also tangle with merchants, one of whom is desperate to marry off his impossible daughter. Thus ensues a farcical drama that produces, in a humorous twist, the unlikeliest of suitors in this whimsical Brazilian take on The Taming of the Shrew.
About the Author
Jorge Amado (1912–2001) was born in the state of Bahia, Brazil, whose society he portrays in such acclaimed novels as
Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon and
Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands. Gregory Rabassa is a National Book Award–winning translator whose English-language versions of works by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Mario Vargas Llosa, and Julio Cortazar have become classics in their own right. He lives in New York City.
Samuel Putnam (1892–1950) was a translator and scholar of Romance languages, famous for his English translation of
Don Quixote.