Synopses & Reviews
A Brazilian Lord of the Flies, about a group of boys who live by their wits and daring in the slums of Bahia They call themselves “Captains of the Sands,” a gang of orphans and runaways who live by their wits and daring in the torrid slums and sleazy back alleys of Bahia. Led by fifteen-year-old “Bullet,” the band—including a crafty liar named “Legless,” the intellectual “Professor,” and the sexually precocious “Cat”—pulls off heists and escapades against the right and privileged of Brazil. But when a public outcry demands the capture of the “little criminals,” the fate of these children becomes a poignant, intensely moving drama of love and freedom in a shackled land.
Captains of the Sands captures the rich culture, vivid emotions, and wild landscape of Bahia with penetrating authenticity and brilliantly displays the genius of Brazil’s most acclaimed author.
Review
“Amado was writing to save his countrys soul. . . . The scenes where the captains of the sands manage to fool the rich of the city and get away with it would have made Henry Fielding or Charles Dickens proud.” —Colm Tóibín, from the Introduction
Review
“Amado is Brazil’s most illustrious and venerable novelist.” —
The New York TimesReview
“Brazil’s leading man of letters . . . Amado is adored around the world!” —
NewsweekSynopsis
A Brazilian
Lord of the Flies, about a gang of orphans and runaways who live by their wits and daring in the slums of Bahia,
Captains of the Sands is a favorite among Jorge Amado’s novels. The boys—including the leader, fifteen-year-old “Bullet”; the crafty liar, “Legless”; the intellectual “Professor”; and the sexually precocious “Cat”—dodge and dupe the rich and privileged of Brazil. But when a public outcry demands their capture, thisvivid portrait of a divided culture becomes a poignant, intensely moving drama of love and freedom.
Synopsis
A Brazilian Lord of the Flies, about a group of boys who live by their wits and daring in the slums of Bahia They call themselves “Captains of the Sands,” a gang of orphans and runaways who live by their wits and daring in the torrid slums and sleazy back alleys of Bahia. Led by fifteen-year-old “Bullet,” the band—including a crafty liar named “Legless,” the intellectual “Professor,” and the sexually precocious “Cat”—pulls off heists and escapades against the right and privileged of Brazil. But when a public outcry demands the capture of the “little criminals,” the fate of these children becomes a poignant, intensely moving drama of love and freedom in a shackled land.
Captains of the Sands captures the rich culture, vivid emotions, and wild landscape of Bahia with penetrating authenticity and brilliantly displays the genius of Brazil’s most acclaimed author.
Synopsis
A Brazilian Lord of the Flies, about a group of boys who live by their wits and daring in the slums of Bahia They call themselves “Captains of the Sands,” a gang of orphans and runaways who live by their wits and daring in the torrid slums and sleazy back alleys of Bahia. Led by fifteen-year-old “Bullet,” the band—including a crafty liar named “Legless,” the intellectual “Professor,” and the sexually precocious “Cat”—pulls off heists and escapades against the right and privileged of Brazil. But when a public outcry demands the capture of the “little criminals,” the fate of these children becomes a poignant, intensely moving drama of love and freedom in a shackled land.
Captains of the Sands captures the rich culture, vivid emotions, and wild landscape of Bahia with penetrating authenticity and brilliantly displays the genius of Brazil’s most acclaimed author.
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 García Márquez, Mario Vargas Llosa, and Julio Cortázar have become classics in their own right. He lives in New York City.
Colm Tóibín is the bestselling author of numerous novels, including the Costa Award–winning Brooklyn and the Pulitzer Prize and Booker Prize finalist The Master.