The War of the Saints - by Jorge Amado (Paperback)

About the Book

The holy icon of Saint Barbara of the Thunder is bound for the city of Bahia for an exhibition of holy art. As the boat that bears the image is docking, a miracle occurs and Saint Barbara comes to life, disappearing into the milling crowd on the quay. It is up to her to save a young woman from missing out on the love of a lifetime.

Book Synopsis

Jorge Amado has been called one of the great writers of our time. The joyfulness of his storytelling and his celebration of life's sensual pleasures have found him a loyal following. With The War Of The Saints, he has created an exuberant tale set among the flashing rhythms, intoxicating smells, and bewitching colors of the carnival. The holy icon of Saint Barbara of the Thunder is bound for the city of Bahia for an exhibition of holy art. As the boat the bears the image is docking, a miracle occurs and Saint Barbara comes to life, disappearing into the milling crowd on the quay. Somewhere in the city a young woman has fallen in love, and her prudish guardian aunt has locked her away--an act of intolerance that Saint Barbara must redress. And when she casts her spell over the city, no one's life will remain unchanged.

Review Quotes

"Dazzling...a tour de force and irrefutable proof of the writer's artistic maturity...a carnival of rhythm and color." --Boston Sunday Globe

About the Author

Jorge Amado--novelist, journalist, lawyer--was born in 1912, the son of a cacao planter, in Ilheus, south of Salvador, the provincial capital of Gabriela, clavo y canela. His first novel, Cacao, was published when he was 19. It was an impassioned plea for social justice for the workers on Bahian cacao plantations; and his novels of the '30s and '40s would continue to dramatize class struggle. Not until the 1950s did he write his great literary comic novels--Gabriela, clavo y canela and Doña Flor y sus dos maridos--which take aim at the full spectrum of society even as they pay ebullient tribute to the region of his birth. One of the most renowned writers of the Latin American boom of the '60s, Amado has been translated into more than 35 languages. A highly successful film version of Doña Flor was produced in Brazil in 1976. He died in 2001.