Intimate Enemies

About the Book

This novel received an award from the Art Critic’s Association of Sao Paulo as best fiction.

In this book the author tries a new story line, using elements stored in her memory from childhood. For the first time she writes about northeastern Brazil, describing a sensual and modern place which suffers from the same problems it endured at the turn of the century as well as newer ones such as the corruption practiced using the incentives given by the government to combat the draught. The plot describes the violence committed by the strong against the weak. Within the narrative is the story of a man who lives with four women under the same roof. Full of irreverent and delectable language, this book is as full of life and humor as the region it describes. Indeed, it is a book worth reading many times.

About the Author

JOYCE CAVALCANTE is a journalist and author of six novels plus several short stories and articles that today appear in eight anthologies. Born in Fortaleza, northeastern Brazil, a pristine, equatorial city of sun, sea and enthusiasm, she has focused her writer's eye on the resigned lives of women bred for generations to pray, marry and die. She has woven these elements into all her books, while living in Rio de Janeiro, where she learned about life in the big city, as well as in New York City, Washington D.C., and Sao Paulo, where she currently lives and works. Joyce is also the president of REBRA (Rede de Escritoras Brasileiras), a Brazilian Women Writers' Network.