When lives are dominated by hunger, what becomes of love? When assaulted by daily acts of violence and untimely death, what happens to trust? Set in the lands of Northeast Brazil, this is an account of the everyday experience of scarcity, sickness and death. The author concentrates on the lives of the women and children of a hillside “favela”.
Bringing her readers to the impoverished slopes above the modern plantation town of Bom Jesus de Mata, where she has worked on and off for 25 years.
Nancy Scheper-Hughes follows three generations of shantytown women as they struggle to survive through hard work and cunning.
It is a story of class relations told at the most basic level of bodies, emotions, desires and needs.
The sub-title of the book is “The Violence of Everyday Life in Brazil“. That describes the book perfectly.