A classic Brazilian "Western" full of romance and adventure, violence and courage, and peopled with wonderfully earthy characters from the legendary author's childhood. "Set in Bahia at the turn of the century,Showdownis brimming with the gunmen, fugitives, prostitutes and other characters who settled that sunbaked northeastern state."-The New York Times " Jorge Amado has returned to some of his earliest, most radical concerns, confronting Brazilian society, memory, and mythmaking, and aiming to show, by anecdote, how the Brazil of the modernizing present has buried its (criminal) past."-Commentary "The Brazil Amado writes about inShowdownshares many of the traditions of the American frontier, and that is something Americans can relate to."-Linda Grey, former Bantam president and publisher "Showdownis a combination of the old Amado, who wrote Bahian historical novels, and the new Amado, with the spirit ofGabriela."-Gregory Rabassa, National Book Award-winning translatorofShowdown