San Antonio College Library

Embittered by her first experiences of love, a young Brazilian girl travels to Geneva in search of fame and fortune and finds her beliefs about sex and romance challenged by her relationship with a young painter.

"A bestselling literary sensation in Brazil, a powerful debut short-story collection about favela life in Rio de Janeiro"--

"Introduction to Brazil by a law professor who has been an engaged visitor since the 1960s. Themes of race, political power, violence, environment, religious diversity, and popular culture are made accessible through biographical profiles. Balances exuberance and indignation better than most recent introductions, but at a length that may exhaust the general reader. See Levine's work (item #bi 00006099#) or Eakin's (item #bi 00006100#) for more succinct...

"This is a story of a return: to Manaus, in the heart of the Amzaon; to a large and unruly family of Lebanese emigrants; to the past. Emilie, the matriarch, is on her deathbed. Returning to her childhood home to say goodbye, her granddaughter becomes enveloped in memories, as family and friends gather round to tell their own tales, one by one."

The statue of Saint Barbara of the Thunder, a holy icon, bound for a museum is transformed into a living woman and disappears in the city of Bahia, Brazil.

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...