The War of the Saints

Blurb

The War of the Saints is a Brazilian Modernist novel. It was written by Jorge Amado in 1988 and published in English in 1993, with a translation by Gregory Rabassa. The English version was first published in paperback in 1995.
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 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 Purificaçã in the Bahian town of Santo Amaro. However, as the sloop 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, forming part of the narrative.