Jorge Amado is one of the very finest novelists from Brazil. He combines a rich love for people with a sympathetic view of their life complications. Mix in a little humor, and a tragedy becomes comedy . . . yet the serious commentary remains. His amazing imagination makes the mystical seem as real as what you are holding in your hand. It's almost as though you've entered an alien world, yet on the surface it seems familiar. I'm always reminded on Alice in Wonderland when I read one of his novels.

In this story, the statue of Saint Barbara of the Thunder, a highest esteemed icon is on its way for a special exhibition in Bahia. Upon arriving in that fair city, the statue vanishes and the fun begins! Saint Barbara has come to life and begins to travel all over Bahia. Those who appreciate religious belief will enjoy the fun as people are unable to grasp this miracle.

At the same time, there's another story thread. Young Manela wants to enjoy a festival whose roots are of the spiritualist sort. Fearing for her soul, her aunt Adalgisa seeks to avoid this. At the same time, Manela is drawn to a handsome young man whom Adalgisa sees at inappropriate. Will the path of true love prevail? This story thread is used by Mr. Amado to explore the nature of what it is to do good.

The two story lines eventually merge in one powerful river of satire, irony and good humor. When the heavens collide, can mere mortals hold their ground? Probably not. As in Shakespeare's storms, the turmoil in nature and in the heavens eventually affects the people in all sorts of unexpected ways. You cannot escape it. You also cannot escape the good fun and magical quality of this very funny book.

Be sure to refer to the book's glossary to understand the non-English words in the text. That will expand your appreciation of the book.

After you finish, think about where your religious beliefs may sometimes cause you to be intolerant rather than being open to all of God's gifts and children. How can you open your heart and mind?

I bought this book to take on my trip to Bahia for Carnaval - my holiday reading - and it was the perfect choice. The sights, sounds and smells of Bahia described by Amado were waiting for me when I arrived. On Ash Wednesday, the day Carnval ended, I had the worst hangover of my life! I sought refuge for my sins in the church of Bonfim which is vividly described in the novel. It had a great significance for me that day.

Amado has been criticized for creating a trivialized stereotypical image of brazil and brazilian people but beneath the riotous humor one can detect the harsher socio/political realties of Brazilian life.

Loved it.

If you don't know Bahia yet, the delicious food of Salvador, the magic of the african Saints, the sensual beauty of brazilian women, the songs of Caetano Veloso, the powerful capoeira and the burning taste of the cachaça this book is for you. Then, if you want to discover one of the grandmaster of the latin american literature, the funniest and sexiest, run to buy this true masterpiece now. Probably the only book I have read twice. Magical and absolutely not to be missed.

Abridged review: HOME IS THE SAILOR is a beautiful book. You should read it. Review with more depth: HOME IS THE SAILOR might be the best book I read this year. Perhaps I'm underestimating the quality of the books I've yet to read (just under one-hundred days left in the year after all!) but I doubt it. HOME IS THE SAILOR is a magnificently woven story set in northern Brasil. The story concerns Cpt. Vasco Moscoso de Aragão, either a trust fund playboy or a veteran sea dog, it seems no one is immediately sure. His splendid stories of his travels on the seas enthrall his new neighbours in the vacation town of Periperi where he has mysteriously appeared, along with his incredible past filled with dangers, romance and adventures awakening the passion of the old-timers in the city with whom he passes the days. Cpt. Aragão has overshadowed however, the former favourite storyteller Chico Pacheco who plots to paint the good Captain a fraud! The story is told years after the death of the Captain by a young narrator trying to earn a prize for writing, and a spot in the bed of the Judge's mistress Dondoca! An immensely passionate novel filled with eloquent prose that survives the translation flawlessly. The characters are developed to such richness that for just one moment, you'll take to preferring them to your friends outside the book. This will last for only a moment though as it is Amado's style to make the mundane grand and the grand whatever he wants it to be. You'll realize quickly that the your friends are the characters in the book and you'll love them the more for it. I cannot possibly recommend this book highly enough nor for that matter, many of Amado's other works.

This is one of Jorge Amado's most intriguing stories. It differs from his earlier sociological and ideological works. It is a story of a man who lives a life based upon his own created self image. It explores the idea of what is reality or truth and at the same time presents a wonderful picture of the culture of Northeastern Brazil around the early part of this century. The adventures of the protagonist are hilarious and the ending is surprising and very satisfactory. I have read many of Jorge Amado's books and I find that "Home is the Sailor" is the most readable of all his novels.

If you read fiction, you must read something, perhaps everything, of Jorge Amado's. Romance? Humor? Adventure? Fantasy? The man is a master of many genres. Oh, I suppose I should be recommending Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands for your first Amado read, but Home is the Sailor has the stuff of a classic. I ran across it on the bookshelves of a restaurant in West Virginia and begged the proprietor to lend it to me. He did, bless him, and I returned it with a gift of Larousse Gastronomique.

The name Jorge Amado has been largely ignored by most of the English-speaking world. His passing did not even warrant a note in the NY Times despite his works having been translated into thirty-one languages, filmed, and serialized as soap operas. His books contain some of the most beautiful prose written. There is no limit to the quality of this, in my opinion, his best work. Amado's talent for showing the beauty and glory in the mundane is unmatched. That minor gesture, this habit, those pecularities of character, all become mountains. The protagonist, Pedro Archanjo, is both a free-spirited, entertaining, beloved rogue and a fierce activist for social justice. The locale of Bahía is the home of this tale and the setting could not be better. After an American intellectual celebrity 'discovers' the writings of Pedro Archanjo, a race is on to show who was the biggest supporter of the man who has now become a hero, posthumously. The story occurs along two lines, one is in Archanjo's lifetime and the second during the hoopla generated decades later by the professor from Columbia University. Both tales are resplendent reflections of Bahían life. One has the poverty-stricken barrio of Archanjo's residence with cardsharks, gangsters, capoeiristas and sporting houses. The other modern discos, celebrity worship, and the fantastic possibilities of memory. The tale demonstrates well and humorously the appropriation of history by the present for its own purposes. There are too many wonderful aspects of this novel to describe in this small space. I recommend this novel to anyone who asks for the reason that even with the strife that takes place in it, this book contains a world completely enviable because the people in it seem far more alive than almost any we meet in life.

To me, this is the most important and the best book by Jorge. The book is about the life of Pedro Archanjo, a mulatto man who spent his whole life fighting prejudice. The book teaches you about the Roguish lifestyle Archanjo lived, his growth and maturity and his death. It is very interesting how the interest for why Archanjo wrote grows exponentially as you keep reading. Also, the book deals with the commericalization of Archanjo after his death when an American Genius tells the Brazilian press about his respect for the land of Pedro Archanjo. Within a few days the newspapers make a big deal and lie about the life of Pedro Archanjo to sell ads. The author, a poet suffering the pangs of love, tell you about Archanjo, but also about his personal life. You may ask why I call refer to the author by first name. The reason is because after reading most of his books, I feel like I know him and I tell that this is a must read(this book has the most untraslated terms than any other of Jorge's books, which makes it so much better). If you like Jorge, please email me.

The pursuits of knowlegdge and the importance of true friendship come together well in this book. The characters are so vivid, you might as well be there in person. If you want to live the adventure, Amado is the one to read.

After having an intense conversation about Jorge Amado on a flight to SF, my husband received this book in the mail as a gift from his flight companion. I picked it up recently and became enthralled with the story and the plot. Amado has the ability to tell a story like no other and make you fall in love with the characters. He words will feast your eyes and dance the most elegant dance with your mind.

Amado at his best. The episodes are spellbinding and the reader falls in love with the characters.

Tereza Batista : Home from the Wars is a great read. The characters can be silly, heroic, or evil beyond words, but they're never boring and the story is engrossing.

Out of any doubt, one of the best latinoamerican novel. It`s beutiful, unforgetable, merely a big pleasure read this master piece. Politics, Poetry, Sex, brasilian landscape, an many another subjects are here. You wont regret of buying this book.
Jorge Amado`s reading is a kind of happiness.

This was the first Amado book I read and it is problably the best to start with. The book combines both political commentary, comedy and sex in a way that you will be glued to the book from beginning to end. Also a feature of this book which makes it extra interesting is how the author stops the book and talks to you, it is as if he were right in front of you. It makes the books so personal and even better. If you like this book or Jorge Amado, please email me.

These wonderful stories have been chosen to represent, according to the foreword, the clash between the indigenous culture and the third world. Perhaps black English speakers are not considered indigenous enough and there is nothing from Belize or about the Garifuana. Only one story is from Panama. It would be interesting to know if the right wing is literate at all. I get two problems with politically motivated fiction. The first is that fiction may be one-sided and over-simplify a complex situation. The second is that when terrible atrocities have been committed then writing about them in fiction can make us complacent. We are able to say "it is only a story"(does Arturo Armas really remember the events of 1954). That said, these are are all remarkable. The influence of the South American magic realists can be seen, especially in the title story and there is a tendency to idealize Indian life and the Popol Vul. I has only read Quesada and Ramirez previously and shall be seeking out more by the other writers.

It may look like a children's book, but truly, it is not. Kids will like it, but only adults will understand its meaning completely. The theme of the impossible love has rarely been so delicately and--I have to admit it--amusingly put. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll love it. Obs: the name of the author is "Amado", not "Amada".

This is a very short, unpretentious book. Nevertheless, inside it there lies the essence of brazilian culture. I read this book firstly when I was 14, and I enjoyed it quite a lot. Now I have been reading it again, and I can tell you that it is one of the good books I have read throughout my life. If you are a little (you only need to be very little) interested in Brazil, or in having some pleasant hours of reading, I strongly advise you to buy it.

If Charles Dickens had been Brazilian, then he may have written "Dona Flor." Of course, I mean the Dickens of "Pickwick" rather than "Bleak House." Amado's lovingly imagined tale of an extraordinary woman's unlikely path to happiness has been read and enjoyed by generations of readers, and with good reason. It is a vast panorama of life in the town of Salvador de Bahia, with dozens of classic characters and a circuitous plot, all delivered with humour and panache. A hedonist's delight, "Dona Flor" is a celebration of love, sex, food, music, gambling and everything else that can make a person happy. Check your disbelief and social concerns at the door, sit back and enjoy Jorge Amado's feast for the senses.

"Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands," by Jorge Amado, is a richly entertaining novel. The book has been translated into English by Harriet de Onis. "Dona Flor" tells the story of the title character, a cooking instructor who is widowed and who eventually contemplates remarriage.

"Dona Flor" is a big, sensuous, lusty novel that colorfully evokes the food, music, dance, sexual mores, ethnic diversity, and religious diversity of Brazil. Amado creates a huge tapestry of fascinating characters: the admirable Dona Flor; Vadinho, her roguish first husband; Dona Rozilda, her meddling mother; the gossipy Dona Dinora; gambling czar Pelancchi Moulas; and more.

Amado enlivens the novel with many delightful touches. He sprinkles Brazilian recipes into the text, and also offers insights into Candomble, an Afro-Brazilian folk religion with a colorful pantheon of deities.

"Dona Flor" is full of funny, romantic, and sexy scenes. The novel's plot also has an important magical/supernatural element. I highly recommend this novel, especially to those who are interested in Brazilian literature.

Readable, spicy tale. The author in his lively style takes the reader in a tour through Bahía, using the story of a young woman haunted by her late husband's ghost - a good for nothing gambler who dies in midst of a Carnival. Recipes, voodoo stories, humor and action are braided in a tale that defies the law of gravity: the book will not fall from your hands as you will read on this account of brazilian life. Never boring, always enticing. This is Amado's main book and a must in every library.

Amado's literary output falls rather neatly into two periods. His early work is imbued with a strong sense of social responsibility, a fact for which he had some difficulty under the Vargas regime, and I believe he may have even done a short stint in jail over. The second period, the post-"Gabriela" books, are a lot more laid back and anecdotal.

Sorry to say that in general the second period is the one that's more fun to read, and the books he wrote in the second half of his life are what established his international reputation. A lot of his earlier stuff is not that great, with one exception - this book.

The story is about the kids on the street in Fortaleza, back in the 1930's. To say that they're poor doesn't do justice to it - they live on the street. By necessity they're thieves, but you can't help liking them. They have aspirations of their own in life.

Explaining it in a few words like that may make the American reader think that he's dealing with some "Angels with Dirty Faces" sort of story. It's not. This is not a sentimental novel. It's a reflection of some of the hard realities of Brazilian life, like the urban poverty that never seems to disappear. But it also reflects some of the inherent optimism and the very un-American concern with each other that Brazilians manifest - features of their society that make Brazil such a wonderful place.

hey, I know that this book is awesome, but is old too, the reality of Brazil is not that anymore, some people tend to form opinions about things that they don't know, that they have never seem with their own eyes. But the best thing is that it still is a really interesting novel, and if you read you won't forget, it is just the best book I ever read.

I would recommend this book to anyone as an absolute must read. I read it in the original Portuguese at the suggestion of a friend and if you have the ability, I suggest you do the same. The translation simply doesn't portray the magnificence and beauty of Amado's original. After living in Brazil for sometime, this novel is, to me, the most incredible portrayal of these youth and the circumstances in which they live. The book may be 70 years old, but it is certainly as applicable today as anything else I've read.