"THE SEAMSTRESS"

"This engrossing historical saga of Brazil in the 1920s and 1930s follows sisters Emília and Luzia dos Santos from their impoverished childhoods as village seamstresses to their unimaginable futures: EmÍlia marries the scion of an upper-class family in Recife, while Luzia marries The Hawk, an infamous bandit—cum—Robin Hood who terrorizes provincial landowners. Using as backdrop the populist revolt of 1930 and the push to develop Brazil's enormous resources at the expense of the subsistence farmers, Peebles creates a vast and diverse cast of characters: Dr. Coehlo, Emília's father—in—law, who believes that the measure of a man's skull is a predictor of his behavior; The Hawk's men, all of them killers driven to crime by unjust landowners; Lindalva, a baroness's daughter who recognizes Emília's talent as a dress designer and helps her exploit it; and a mélange of scheming politicians, villagers and society women. However, the novel's true beauty is the exquisitely realized relationship between Emí and Luzia, two strong women who, despite the separate paths their lives
take, remain connected and committed to each other."