Since the arrival of Gringa, everything has been going wrong. Maria Aparecida, the queen of the slums, has disappeared; one-eyed Tonio has stopped singing; Ze and Manuel are feverish and Mama Lourdes the clairvoyant can only predict bad news. The area is dying - one by one its children are abandoning sleepy Bahia to follow their fortunes in the big cities of the south. Bahia Blues draws the reader into the heart of modern-day Brazil: amid the squalor of Rio de Janeiro shantytown, along the lively streets of Sao Paolo and within the cells of Canju, the prison of Bahia.