Description
Book SynopsisBruno is the story of a Brazilian navy corporal turned drug dealer, who after being imprisoned became the leader of one of Brazil's biggest criminal factions, the Comando Vermelho. Bruno's story provides insights into the Brazilian drug trade, prison life, and explains the epidemic of violence in Rio's favelas.
Trade Review“This particular account is interesting and engaging…” -- Ed Hart * Sounds and Colours *
"The real contribution of
Bruno [is]... the private reflections that we gain from a single informant who is intelligent, critical, and painfully idealistic. It is this personal voice, rather than the empirical data, that makes
Bruno truly special, and a necessary supplement for scholars interested not only in drug trafficking and prisons, but in the relationship between crime and self-reflection as well." -- Samuel E. Novacich * Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology *
“In telling the story of Bruno, sociologist Robert Gay succeeds in demystifying not only gangs and the drug trade but also an entire country. This is a carefully crafted study of a criminal career embedded in a society that for generations has denied citizenship to large numbers of its population…. This is an important book that skilfully utilises ethnographic interviews to tell the story of one man in the trenches of the global war against drugs.” -- Dick Hobbs * Times Higher Education *
"This gripping book is a superb entry point into the maze of Brazilian prisons and, hopefully, a spur to more systematic historical research into the country’s current dilemmas with prisons, drugs, and gangs." -- Paul Gootenberg * Hispanic American Historical Review *
"From the haunting cover to the emotional ending
Bruno: Conversations with a Brazilian Drug Dealer shapes up to be a gripping read for anyone interested in the shady underworld of drug gang culture. . . .
Bruno is a fascinating account that will serve as a useful testament of life in the Brazilian underworld which will be of immense value to students of cultural studies and Latin American history for years to come. In that sense,
Bruno is strictly not the sensationalised bestseller that the story has the potential to be, but something infinitely more valuable." -- Jay Kerr * Latin American Review of Books *
"Robert Gay has written an intimate, eye-opening book that opens a window into the politics of prisons and drug prohibition in Brazil." -- Kevin Lewis O'Neill * Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute *
"Stirring. . . . Gay offers a finely grained ethnographic account of an individual whose life is embedded in a complex world of drug trafficking complicities." -- Robert Gay * Latin American Research Review *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1. Trafficking 7
2. Things Come Undone 29
3. The Family 47
4. The Devil's Cauldron 63
5. On the Run 85
6. Paradise Lost 109
7. The Leader 135
8. Judgment Day 175
Postscript 195
Timeline of Events 201
Notes 203
Bibliography 215
Index 219
