by Jorge Amado. I almost sat this book down in the beginning and am glad I didn’t! Got to the last few pages and went ohhhhhh and then POW! BAM! 180 degrees! Great ending.
The blurb on the back of the book reads:
“The sleepy Brazilian beach resort needed a hero. And when retired Captain Vasco de Aragao arrives, the townspeople are enthralled by his tales of exploits and exotic romance on the five oceans. Through these vicarious voyages they meet dangers they had never taken on, and sinful voluptuous women they, alas, had never bedded down. Only Chico Pacheco, the local hero whose story telling eminence has been undermined, delves into the captain’s past- and discovers that he has never set foot on an oceangoing deck. But when the ship Ito comes into Bahia with her captain dead- and Captain Vasco is pressed into her service, the landlocked dreamer begins an adventure in love and seamanship that surpasses his fantasies.”
