Books - The Rough Guide to Brazil - page 670

well illustrated and especially strong on the cultural context
of Niemeyer's rise to prominence in the 1940s and 1950s.

CUISINE
Michael Bateman Street Café Brazil (Conran Octopus;
Contemporary Books). The title is rather deceptive, as
you're unlikely to come across many of these recipes on
Brazilian street stalls, but they are authentic, and the lavish
pictures are enough to inspire you to attempt to reproduce
them at home.
Fernando Farah The Food and Cooking of Brazil
Aquamarine . By far the best book on traditional and
contemporary Brazilian cooking, by one of the country's
most popular celebrity chefs.
Christopher Idone Brazil: A Cook's Tour (Pavilion;
Clarkson Potter). A region-by-region look at Brazilian
cooking, its origins and influences, with a few recipes
thrown in as well. The colour photos of ingredients,
markets and dishes are mouthwatering and the text lively
and informative. It's good to see São Paulo and the Amazon
being discussed separately and at length (when it comes to
cookbooks, usually only Rio and Bahia get a look-in), but
the South is completely ignored.

ART AND PHOTOGRAPHY
Gilberto Ferrez Photography in Brazil 1840-1900 (New
Mexico UP, o/p). One of the little-known facts about Brazil
is that the first-ever non-portrait photograph was taken of
the Paço da Cidade in Rio in 1840, by a Frenchman hot off a
ship with the newfangled Daguerrotype. This is a
fascinating compendium of the pioneering work of early
photographers in Brazil, including material from all over
the country, although the stunning panoramas of Rio from
the 1860s onward are the highlight.
Daniel Levine (ed) The Brazilian Photographs of Genevieve
Naylor, 1940-1942 (Duke UP). Recently uncovered
photographs by a young American photographer, mainly of
Rio, Salvador and the small towns of the interior. They are a
revelation: Naylor was a great photographer, interested in
people and street scenes, not landscapes, and this is a unique
visual record of Brazil and its people during the Vargas years.

MUSIC, DANCE AND CAPOEIRA
Bira Almeida Capoeira - a Brazilian Art Form (North
Atlantic Books). A capoeira mestre (master) explains the
history and philosophy behind this African-Brazilian
martial art/dance form. The topics offers valuable
background information for those who practise capoeira
and for those who are merely interested.
Ruy Castro Bossa Nova - The Story of the Brazilian Music
That Seduced the World (A Capella). A welcome translation
of an excellent book by a Brazilian journalist and
biographer. This is basically an oral history of bossa nova,
packed with incidental detail on Rio nightlife and city
culture of the 1950s and early 1960s. A very good read.
Chris McGowan and Ricardo Pessanha The Brazilian
Sound: Samba, Bossa Nova and the Popular Music of Brazil
(Temple UP). An easy-to-flick-through and well-written
basic manual on modern Brazilian music and musicians.
Good to carry with you if you're planning on doing some
serious music-buying. There's also a useful bibliography
and a good discography.
Caetano Veloso Tropical Truth: A Story of Music and
Revolution in Brazil (Bloomsbury; Knopf ). The maestro's
account of tropicalismo and his early career, including exile,
from the 1960s to the early 1970s. Veloso is as good a writer
as you would expect, a little over-anxious to show off his
learning sometimes, but this is a fascinating despatch from
the culture wars of the 1960s.

FOOTBALL
★

Alex Bellos Futebol: The Brazilian Way of Life
(Bloomsbury). Accessible and engaging analysis of
Brazilian football, from its early history to its present
compulsive mixture of world-class players on the pitch and
equally world-class levels of corruption off it. Written by a
journalist with an eye for original stories: homesick
Brazilians playing in the Faroe Islands, tactics for
transvestites and much more. Essential reading.
Luca Caioli Neymar: The Making of the World's Greatest New
Number 10 (Icon Book Ltd). Brazil's newest great hope is given
the star treatment in this fawning biography, but it is a
fascinating insight into not just Brazil's contemporary football
scene, but the social backgrounds of its top players too.
Josh Lacey God is Brazilian: Charles Miller, the Man Who
Brought Football to Brazil (Tempus). A well-researched and
entertaining account of the life and times of Charles Miller,
the Anglo-Brazilian who is credited with introducing
modern football to Brazil. Football apart, the topic offers
fascinating observations regarding late Victorian and
Edwardian British society both in England and São Paulo.
Pelé Pelé The Autobiography (Simon & Schuster). Published
to coincide with the 2006 World Cup, this ghost-written
“autobiography” of the world's most famous Brazilian is as
wooden and formulaic as this type of book always is, but
hey - it's Pelé, and therefore compulsive reading for any
football fan.

FICTION
WORKS BY BRAZILIAN AUTHORS
Jorge Amado Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon ; Tereza Batista
(both Abacus, o/p; Avon); Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands
(Serpent's Tail; Avon); The Violent Lands (Collins; Avon).

Amado is the proverbial rollicking good read, a fine choice
for the beach or on long bus journeys. He's by far the best-
known Brazilian writer abroad - there is even a French wine
named after him. Purists rightly quibble that the local colour