"Set in Bahia at the turn of the century, Showdown is brimming with the gunmen, fugitives, prostitutes and other characters who settled that sunbaked northeastern state."--The New York Times

"[Jorge] Amado has returned to some of his earliest, most radical concerns, confronting Brazilian society, memory, and mythmaking, and aiming to show, by anecdote, how the Brazil of the modernizing present has buried its (criminal) past."--Commentary

"The Brazil [Amado] writes about in Showdown shares many of the traditions of the American frontier, and that is something Americans can relate to."--Linda Grey, former Bantam president and publisher

"Showdown is a combination of the old Amado, who wrote Bahian historical novels, and the new Amado, with the spirit of Gabriela."--Gregory Rabassa, National Book Award-winning translator of Showdown