Land of Black Clay takes place largely in the rural township of Sapé, a town in the northeast Brazilian state of Paraíba, many hundreds of miles north-northeast of Rio de Janeiro. The main character, Jorge Elias, is a newspaper reporter from Rio de Janeiro who is assigned to cover a news story in Sapé. A judge, Odilon Fernandes, has reopened the case of a farmworker union organizer whose murder local landowners ordered. The initial investigation into the murder was perfunctory, but now, the possibility of justice is given a second chance. Land of Black Clay is a political-adventure novel reminiscent of the material from which such Costa-Gavras movies as Z and Missing were made.

Though this is a work of fiction, such union leaders as João Pedro Teixeira and Margarida Maria Alves actually lived. The land barons and their friends are fictional, as are the events themselves.

BOSON BOOKS also offers a translation of Childhood of the Dead by Jose Louzeiro. For author and translator bios, reviews, and a reading sample, visit bosonbooks.com.