Delving into Brazil's baroque past, Peter Robb writes about its history of slavery and the richly multicultural but disturbed society that was left in its wake when the practice was abolished in the late nineteenth century. Even today, Brazil is a hation of almost unimaginable distance between its wealthy and its poor, a place of extraordinary levels of crime and violence. It is also one of the most beautiful and seductive places on earth. Using the art and the food, and the books of its great nineteenth century writer, Machado de Assis, Robb takes us on a journey into a world like Conrad's Nostromo. A world so absurdly dramatic, like the current president Lula's fight for power, that it could have come from one of the country's immensely popular TV soap operas, a world where resolution is often only provided by death. Like all the best travel writing, A Death in Brazil immerses you deep into the heart of a fascinating country. Vivid, obsessive and intelligent, this is an utterly enthralling account.

彼得·罗伯深入巴西巴洛克式的过去，写下了它的奴隶制历史，以及 19 世纪后期废除奴隶制后留下的丰富多元文化但令人不安的社会。即使在今天，巴西的富人和穷人之间的距离也几乎无法想象，这里的犯罪和暴力程度非常高。它也是地球上最美丽、最诱人的地方之一。使用艺术和食物，以及 19 世纪伟大作家马查多·德·阿西斯 (Machado de Assis) 的书籍，罗伯带我们踏上了康拉德 (Conrad) 的诺斯特罗莫 (Nostromo) 世界之旅。一个如此荒谬戏剧化的世界，就像现任总统卢拉的权力斗争一样，它可能来自该国极受欢迎的电视肥皂剧之一，而这个世界往往只能通过死亡来解决。就像所有最好的旅行作品一样，《巴西之死》让你沉浸在一个迷人国家的心脏深处。生动，痴迷和聪明，这是一个完全迷人的帐户。