I absolutely love historical fiction and read a lot of it; I love to learn history this way. I also enjoy reading science fiction, fantasy, horror, thriller and non-fiction science.
A Hero For the People turned out to be not at all what I was expecting from this story collection, but really glad that I got a chance to read them. Many stories have a haunting beauty quality to them and could easily be classified as thrillers. Since Arthur Powers spent his time in Brazil serving with the Franciscan Friars, I was expecting more stories of helping people and hopefully some stories of the landscape. These stories are in here, but my favorites were more of the chilling variety. Here are short recaps and reviews of the stories I thought were the most intriguing:
The Bridge sets the tone of the work that Arthur is doing in Brazil, some of the desperate situations that people in the area are in as well as the setting of the backlands and the character of the people who live there . This story is a bit of a whopper to begin with, but definitely grabbed my attention.
The story Hate alone is well worth the read. A haunting story of hate and greed and how it can affect a person. Definitely worth it, even if it read as a stand-alone.
Two Foxes is an endearing story of a farmer's relationship with the animals around him, for better or for worse.
Another chilling story, Famine shows the power of hunger and how far a group of people will go for the opportunity to eat.
Overall, a collection of heart-wrenching, heart-pounding and heartbreaking stories from the far reaches of Brazil that opened my eyes to what life is like in that region of the world.