The Discovery of America by the Turks by Jorge Amado

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The Discovery of America by the Turks

Name: The Discovery of America by the Turks
Price: 5.99 USD
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Author: Jorge Amado
ISBN: 9781101603574

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Published on Aug 28, 2012 | 96 Pages

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Published on Aug 28, 2012 | 96 Pages

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A Penguin Classic

Published here for the first time in English in a brilliant translation by the peerless Gregory Rabassa, The Discovery of America by the Turks is a whimsical Brazilian take on The Taming of the Shrew that will remind readers why Jorge Amado is to Portuguese-American literature what Jorge Luis Borges is to Spanish-American literature. It follows the adventures of two Arab immigrants—“Turks,” as Brazilians call them—who arrive in the rough Brazilian frontier in 1903 and become involved in a merchant’s farcical attempt to marry off his shrew of a daughter.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

“Funny, intelligent, often tender, not infrequently raunchy . . . The tale unfolds with twists worthy of a Shakespearean comedy, but what is truly memorable are Amado’s character portraits and his vibrant comic scenes of Brazilian life. . . . [An] excellent example of the particular mixture of folkloric elements and high-literary storytelling for which Amado is often paired with Gabriel García Márquez.” —The Wall Street Journal

“Delightful . . . A wonder of the art of narration [by] the voice, the feeling, and the joy of Brazil.” —José Saramago, from the Foreword

“Hugely entertaining . . . Amado’s version of Brazil is seductive.” —The Times Literary Supplement

“Cause for rejoicing . . . Irresistible . . . Thoroughly satisfying. There’s more packed into the slender The Discovery of America by the Turks than many a novel five times its length, delivered with zest and spice and an unashamed love of physical pleasure. Perhaps more than any other author, Jorge Amado can capture in words the simple, radiant joys of living.” —Shelf Awareness

Author

Jorge Amado

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.

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By Jorge AmadoForeword by Jose SaramagoTranslated by Gregory Rabassa