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Jorge Amado: São Jorge dos Ilhéus (The Golden Harvest)
More passion in the cocoa plantations. This story is set a few years after the action in Terras do Sem-Fim (The Violent Land) and things have changed somewhat. The lawlessness of the earlier book has become less apparent, while the exporters have gradually moved in and are starting to take over (and, by the end of the book, will have taken over). The main theme of this book is the economic boom, as the price of cocoa goes through the roof, and the subsequent bust. Amado tells the stories of the key characters – Colonel Horácio, who is still living in the past and who feuds with his son, the savvy but cuckolded exporter, Carlos Zude, the poet Sergio (who is cuckolding Zude), Zude’s wife, Julieta, loved by both men, Pepe, the gigolo and Lola, his high-priced whore who loves him too much for her own good, Antônio, the hired killer from the previous book, now a landowner, his hard-working wife Raimunda, their son, Joaquim, the Communist and many others. Times have changed but the passion still runs deep and Amado tells a wonderful tale of love and greed and power and suffering.
Publishing history
First published 1943 by Livraria Martins
First published in English 1992 by Avon Books
Translated by Clifford E. Landers