''The War of the Saints'' (

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

: ''O Sumiço da Santa'') is a Brazilian

Modernist Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

Jorge Amado Jorge Leal Amado de Faria (10 August 1912 – 6 August 2001) was a Brazilian writer of the modernist school. He remains the best known of modern Brazilian writers, with his work having been translated into some 49 languages and popularized in ...

first published in 1988. An English translation by

Gregory Rabassa Gregory Rabassa, Order of Merit (Portugal), ComM (March 9, 1922 – June 13, 2016), was an American literature, literary translation, translator from Spanish and Portuguese to English. He taught for many years at Columbia University and Queens Co ...

appeared in 1993.

The novel

The novel, which takes place within a period of 48 hours, centers around Dom Maximiliano von Gruden, Director of the Museum of Sacred Art in

Salvador, Bahia Salvador (English: ''Savior'') is a Brazilian municipality and capital city of the state of Bahia. Situated in the Zona da Mata in the Northeast Region of Brazil, Salvador is recognized throughout the country and internationally for its cuisine ...

in Brazil. Von Gruden curates a show of Bahian religious art, the centerpiece of which is planned to be a statue of Saint Barbara of the Thunder, reluctantly loaned by the church of Santo Amaro da Purificação in the Bahian town of Santo Amaro. However, as the

sloop A sloop is a sailboat with a single mast typically having only one headsail in front of the mast and one mainsail aft of (behind) the mast. Such an arrangement is called a fore-and-aft rig, and can be rigged as a Bermuda rig with triangular sa ...

on which it is being transported docks in Salvador, the statue gets up and walks off the ship. Chaotic efforts to find her come to nothing. Santa Barbara, or her Yoruban spirit entity, Yansan, has her own agenda, freeing a young girl from the nunnery where she has been confined by her aunt. The events over the two days often confuse fact and myth, with Brazilian celebrities of the period, such as the singer

Caetano Veloso Caetano Emanuel Viana Teles Veloso (; born 7 August 1942) is a Brazilian composer, singer, guitarist, writer, and political activist. Veloso first became known for his participation in the Brazilian musical movement Tropicalismo, which encomp ...

, forming part of the narrative. The early pages of the book introduce the main elements that are used throughout the story:

magical realism Magical is the adjective for magic. It may also refer to: * Magical (horse) (foaled 2015), Irish Thoroughbred racehorse * "Magical" (song), released in 1985 by John Parr * '' Magical: Disney's New Nighttime Spectacular of Magical Celebrations'', ...

, politics, Brazilian sexuality, and a love of the culture of

Bahia Bahia ( , , ; meaning "bay") is one of the 26 Federative units of Brazil, states of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast Region of the country. It is the fourth-largest Brazilian state by population (after São Paulo (sta ...

, in particular Afro-Brazilian religious ceremony. Emphasis is given to religious

syncretism Syncretism () is the practice of combining different beliefs and various school of thought, schools of thought. Syncretism involves the merging or religious assimilation, assimilation of several originally discrete traditions, especially in t ...

and social critique. The book is also a bitter attack on the regimes that governed Brazil, of censorship, and the banning of political parties and any form of protest. At the same time the book uses a common Amado theme, that of the joy of sexuality, in a "tale of Catholicism subverted by spiritualism, of puritanism undone by joyous sap, of right-wing control undone by happy anarchy".

References

1988 novels Novels by Jorge Amado Brazilian novels {{1980s-novel-stub