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, Showdown is 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 in Showdown shares many of the traditions of the American frontier, and that is something Americans can relate to."--Linda Grey, former Bantam president and publisher"Showdown is a combination of the old Amado, who wrote Bahian historical novels, and the new Amado, with the spirit of Gabriela."--Gregory Rabassa, National Book Award-winning translator of Showdown

    As the novel opens, the matriarch Eulalia has begun her final task--dying. Long, long ago she came to Brazil from Spain--a bride with her already formidable, iron-willed husband, Madruga. Inspired by Grandfather Xan, the young couple brought with them the passion for making memories into tales--told as sustenance, proof, and hallmark; told as protection against the killing rush of time. Now, as both Eulalia and her era near their end, that tradition achieves its most poignant flowering--in a burst of family lore, recrimination, and recollected dreams, as the clan, gathered at Eulalia's side, relives the past and vies for the future.