Jorge Amado

Can a woman love two men at the same time? The charming rogue Vadinho dos Guimares, an incorrigible, inveterate gambler and womanizer, dies during Carnival. His wife Dona Flor is distraught, until she meets the young Dr. Theodore. But after their wedding, passionately unsatisfied, Dona Flor begins to dream about the amorous attentions of her first husband. Vadinho himself soon reappears, ready to claim his conjugal rights.

Dona Flor și cei doi soți ai ei

Nona G

I love Jorge Amado's work, but this novel is the jewel in the crown. It's indescribably complex and I simply don't know how to classify it... it starts innocently enough, as a romance, making you wonder why does it need 500+ pages to tell the story of two marriages. It cascades into the lovely world of Brazil and its culture, making it the perfect poetry of Bahia, with its dances, its parties, its foods, and its customs and beliefs. But then... towards the end, just when you think there's nothing left to tell, it becomes this magical story that could survive on its own.

It's overwhelming at times, maybe confusing, but utterly wonderful. Amado builds a world full of color, where each passing character, no matter how small, receives a life's story. Everything is interconnected, everyone builds this world brick by brick - the players, the gossiping ladies, the mystics, the priest...

Dona Flor makes me miss Brazil and everything that goes along with that. It's that perfect little piece of culture that can determine a reader to go visit a country. And with a touch of the mystical, to top it. Masterpiece.

Dona Flor și cei doi soți ai ei

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