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,...

Antonio Vieira's The Sermon of Saint Anthony to the Fish and Other Texts is the first collection of his writings to appear in English.

Modern readers will be surprised by Ribeiro's complex treatment of love and longing in Maiden and Modest (1554), because his narrative of suffering and unhappy love is told from the perspective of female protagonists. Indeed, a strikingly feminist note infuses the entire narrative, which also contains both autobiographical aspects and traces of the Cabala and Zohar. A self-conscious narrative that explores issues of gender, identity, and sexuality, Maiden and Modest makes a significant contribution to the development of the European novel. This is an essential book for readers of...

Set in the Middle Ages but written in the early twentieth century, Eca de Queiros's novella, Saint Christopher, is a powerful indictment of those who profess the value of morality but who do not practice it. The narrative is just as relevant today--when issues of religion, hypocrisy, and social justice are more urgent than ever--as it was when it first appeared in 1912. Written as though it were the product of a dialogue between Jesus and Proudhon (whose theories animate much of the narrative), Saint Christopher challenges today's ethically motivated reader to do what the narrative's...