Books like O Cortiço

The novel, "The Slum" provides a 19th century glimpse of Brazilian society via the misadventures of the founder and residents of a slum. Somehow Azevedo is able to convey a myriad of social tensions across multiple levels and he does so with incredible vividness, wonderful prose, and memorable characters. The reader is immersed in the tension between Portuguese immigrants and Brazilians, between mulattoes and blacks, between men and women, between upper and lower classes resulting in a rather head-spinning sensation. Azevedo's descriptions are at times disturbing and always revealing. At the end, I felt like I had just returned from a journey into a new culture which left me changed forever!