Bahia Blues

'A very impressive and engaging first novel and Yasmina Traboulsi is unquestionably a writer to watch' - Salman Rushdie'Bahia Blues is a triumphant debut from a writer of unquestionable talent' - New Internationalist'With enough Grand Guignol to fill a Globo novella, Bahia Blues delivers the sensuous eccentricity of an Amado novel cut with City of God realism' - Guardian'Bahia Blues is engrossing - full of passion and flavour. Traboulsi expertly turns the theme of social deprivation into character-led fiction, and handles tragedy and city life with equal affection' - Financial Times'A new author with an extraordinarily fresh voice' - Amanda Hopkinson, Independent'Yasmina Traboulsi's Bahia Blues is an eccentric tale about the impact of a stranger on the poor but happy residents of a square in Salvador, Brazil. Traboulsi evokes urban life in Brazil with beautiful prose' - Claire Allfree, Debut Novels to Try, Metro'A terrific book' - Lisa Appignanesi

Salvador, Bahia - an ill wind is blowing through the old quarter of the city. Since the arrival of Gringa, everything has been going wrong. Maria Aparecida, the queen of the slums, has disappeared; one-eyed Tonio has stopped singing; Ze and Manuel are feverish; and Mama Lourdes, the clairvoyant, can only predict bad news. The area is dying - one by one its children are abandoning sleepy Bahia to follow their fortunes in the big cities of the south. The bittersweet lament of Bahia Blues draws the reader into the heart of modern-day Brazil - amid the squalor of a Rio de Janeiro shantytown, along the lively streets of Sao Paolo, and within the cells of Canju, the prison of Bahia.