ROADS LESS TRAVELLED: MAY 2026 - SAMBA TIME!

Colorful, vibrant Brazil. South America's biggest country in every sense is our destination for May 2026

Some author options:

Machado de Assis
Jorge Amado
Clarice Lispector
Ignacio de Loyola Brandao
Paulo Coehlo
Milton Hatoum
Itamar Vieira Junior
Carol Bensimon
Ana Paula Maia
Yara Rodrigues Fowler
Carola Saavedra

What Will I read as a minimum:

Crooked Plow by Itamar Vieira Junior



Books by Amada, Maia and Lispector also a possibility.

I've pulled two books off the shelves - City of God by Paulo Lins & Captains of the Sands by Jorge Amado.

I recommend a graphic novel by twin brothers, Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá. They did a marvellous GN version of Milton Hatoum's novel, Two Brothers.

>4 avatiakh: I also have Captains of the Sands and may try and join you, Kerry

The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas is on its way to my local library.

>6 booksaplenty1949: Yikes I have that one as well. Too many choices!

>7 PaulCranswick: Rave reviews for the new translation.

I am hoping to read a couple of books for the challenge this month:

Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon by Jorge Amado - I have had this book in the BlackHole for quite a while so I am eager to read it
Skylight by Jose Saramago - I have only read one other Saramago book, Blindness and rated it very highly

I have pulled My Sweet Orange Tree by José Mauro de Vasconcelos off my shelves. I hope to start it this morning.

I have a couple of options on my shelf. The Hour of the Star and Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon. Both will be hard to get to this month. I will have to see what I can do. I highly recommend Blindness, so good. I haven't read his The Double. Lots of possible options.

But isn't Saramago Portuguese, not Brazilian?

>12 labfs39: You are correct, Lisa. Oops! Guess I will just be reading the Amado for this challenge then.

Glad to see so many readers of Jorge Amado's work. I love most of the books I read from him. I have two unread on my shelves, and have pulled Captains of the Sands as my participation to this month challenge.

Thanks to >10 labfs39: for mentionning My Sweet Orange Tree. It is also on my shelves but I had not thought about it, so will add it to this month read!

>15 labfs39: I'm halfway through, and it's quite sweet so far.

>1 PaulCranswick:( I pulled the book from my shelves this morning before leaving for work, so should read soon.
Glad you like it, and looking forward to your review.
The subtitle is something like "how a boy learned about sorrow", so it might not be sweet all the way through. Or bitter-sweet?

Finished The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas. Tone reminded me of Thackeray, but with “meta” elements characteristic of postmodernism. A plot largely taken up with an adulterous affair that would have been untouchable in a contemporary English novel. Interesting enough, although I could not echo the raptures of Dave Eggers and other blurbers.

I finished The Captains of the Sands (1937) by Jorge Amado. A great read about a gang of street kids living in Salvador de Bahia.

I read The Captains of the Sands as planned. Not the best book by Jorge Amdao, IMO.
I read My Sweet Orange tree as well, and found myself crying, which is unusual for me.

I had a plan to limit myself to two books per month for this challenge, but reading plans are meant to be overlooked, right? So when I found out Samir Machado de Machado had a second book translated into French, I could not resist and decided the challenge was the perfect opportunity to squeeze it in my urgent reading list.
So I read The Good Nazi, which I really enjoyed: easy to read, entertaining and clever.
It is not as good as his first book: Tupinilandia is a gem! (unfortunately, I'm not sure it has been translated into English).