"May 1868. Yesterday evening I disembarked at Luanda, carried onto the shore by two sailors from Cabinda. Hurled onto the beach, wet and humiliated, I was immediately assaulted by the alarming sensation of having left the real world behind me. I breathed in the hot, humid Angolan air, aware of the sweet scents of fruit and sugar-cane, and gradually began to recognise another smell, something subtler, more melancholy, not unlike the smell of death and decay..." "So begin the travels of Fradique Mendes, Portuguese aristocrat and adventurer. His journey will take him through the backwoods of Angola, across the wild seas to colonial Brazil and back home to his native Lisbon. A Brazilian mercenary will make an attempt on his life; kidnappings and midnight escapes, alligator hunts, violent deaths and dizzying parties, all these will be recorded in his passionate and evocative letters home." "As he travels across three continents Fradique will bear witness to the end of the Portuguese slave trade and the Empire's painful attempts to reinvent itself for the modern age. His journey will bring him into contact with slaves and aristocrats, slave-owners and abolitionists, capoeira fighters and witch-doctors. Most importantly, he will meet Ana Olimpia Vaz de Caminha, a former slave-girl said to be the most beautiful woman in the world - and fall deeply in love with her."--BOOK JACKET.