From the Publisher: "The Taker and Other Stories is Rubem Fonseca's first collection to appear in English translation, and it ranges across his oeuvre, exploring the sights and sounds of the modern landscape of Rio de Janeiro. Fonseca's Rio is a city at war, a city whose disparities-in wealth, social standing, and prestige-are untenable. In the stories of The Taker, rich and poor live in an uneasy equilibrium, where only overwhelming force can maintain...