Jorge Amado

One of the leading literary lights of his native Brazil, Jorge Amado (1912-2001) was born to a prominent landowning family in Bahia. He was in his early 20s when his novels started gaining popularity abroad while being banned in Brazil and Portugal. Early books like Cacau focused on the racial and social inequities of his country, while later ones such as Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands detailed sexual mores in the countryside in ways that scandalized his compatriots. Nevertheless, his novels remained popular among both readers and critics at home and abroad.