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,...