The Generals of the Sand Quarries

Jorge Amado is an unmatched singer of sunny Brazil, once a controversial author and now a recognized classic, whose books have been translated into fifty languages, published in dozens of countries, and have become the basis for numerous films and series. He was born in Bahia, a Brazilian state on the Atlantic Ocean coast, and it is there that the action of his most famous novels takes place, including the last novel of the «Bahian cycle» «The Generals of the Sand Quarries». In Brazil, «The Generals», for which the writer traveled around both Americas, is one of his most beloved books, while in the rest of the world it is one of the most well-known (in 1971, Hall Bartlett adapted it into a film, which became a cult classic). The gang of «the generals of the sand quarries»—homeless children who sleep on the sandy beaches of Bahia—commit daring robberies, hide from the police, suffer and have fun, cry and laugh, pray, dream, and hold the unwritten laws of friendship in great reverence. In Brazil, Jorge Amado intertwines all conceivable colors, all images of life, and all possible fates; here, music plays around the clock, poverty continuously fights with wealth, piety cohabits under one roof with the most terrible vices, tears are interspersed with laughter, and harsh reality easily coexists with everyday magic.