It is increasingly rare to find writers working on such good quality romances, with all the good qualities of the Literary Genre. And here it comes, the Literary voice, straight from within the remote corners of Bahia, Brazil, somewhat surprising for its intensity and audacity.
João Calazans Filho was made in Literature by Poetry, by which he developed his Literary vocation and extravagance. Verses of passion, verses of a word lover. From this passion, then, the novelist emerges, inexpectedly, able to rescue the tradition of the romance, so undeniable and so forgotten. His prose is vigorous and does not negate all the dramatic features of the novel genre: remarkable characters, vividness, personalized dialogs, with their own expressions; and well-designed narrative structure.
Besides all these qualities, Calazans also rescues the scenarios of the cacao farms, of the prosperity and conflicts brought by the golden fruit of Bahia, in a kind of second cycle of that repeats the secular history. Nothing was changed as time went by, for from it, the truth emerges.
That’s the way the talented, vigorous and intense novelist emerges. Trying to rescue his roots and culture, facing his fears and daring – revisiting the past is Always challenging.
In the novel universe, Calazans came to stay.
Roberto Amado
Writer
Genre: FICTION / Action & AdventureThe portuguese edition The Alley receive big attention anda wonderfull sales.
At the beginning of the Military Dictatorship and in the midst of the violent reality of cacao cultivation and of the Brazilian coronelism, where killing is just another tool of work, and fear is the best way to lead, the Police Chief Officer João tries to put a stop, no matter how hard it takes, to the action of a serial killer, because the officer wants to maintain the impression of peace in the city, so that he can do what he likes: get into debt by organizing carnival blocks, drinking, playing and surrounding women and friends in his casino in the legendary Beco do Pinga.
Alley, by the way, figures almost like a character in this thriller. While the landowners live on their farms in the city, away from their workers and having European customs (and spending). At Beco do Pinga, inside Camacan, these same workers spend their little and hard-earned money on the pleasures of addiction, and try not to mess with the wrong woman, at the risk of waking up 'full of lead'. The Alley is the soul, albeit a little poorly washed, of this small town.
With remarkable and charming characters and an engaging storyline, The Alley carries us through an adventure in the "Brazilian Western" where the law that preponderates is the one of the ‘strongest’whereas the moral is relative, until this quiet Sodom is interrupted by murders different from usual ones, without reason nor apparent objective.
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Spanish
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Translation in progress.
Translated by Jennifer Cerda
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