Jorge Amado

AMADO, Jorge (1912) Brazilian novelist, most of whose novels are set in his birth region of Bahia. He began as a politically committed left-wing writer, and his novels until The Violent Land are powerful, naturalistic but over-simplified accounts of class struggle. The Violent Land is still based in Marxist thinking, but its record of the struggle between planters for possession of cocoa groves transcends doctrine by its psychological mastery and its vastly improved technique. Some of its successors are as good, and artistically even better: Amado's interests have shifted from politics to myth, folklore, sly comedy and non-realist techniques.

Selected Books & Recommended Reading
O País do Carnaval (1931)
Cacau (1933) (Cacao)
Suor (1934)
Jubiabá (1935)
Mar Morto (1936) also known as Sea of Death
Capitães da Areia (1937) UK title Captains of the Sand
Terras do Sem Fim (1943) English title The Violent Land
São Jorge dos Ilhéus (1944)
Seara Vermelha (1946)
Os Subterrâneos da Liberdade (1954)
Gabriela, Cravo e Canela (1958)
A Morte e a Morte de Quincas Berro Dágua or The Two Deaths of Quincas Wateryell (1959)
Os Pastores da Noite or Shepherds of the Night (1964)
Dona Flor e Seus Dois Maridos

An author whose works have been translated into 48 languages and sold more than 20 million copies, died of a heart attack in the north-eastern city of Salvador, the setting for many of his best-loved novels.