Lucia

"If you can no longer recall the stomach-churning depictions of Rio de Janeiro favelas from the 2002 film City of God, this true account of one mujer's life in the Brazilian underworld—trying to survive local gangs and merciless rule of her drug-lord boyfriend—will bring it all back." —Latina

"These transcripts reveal much about the structure and complexities of life in one of Rio de Janeiro's favelas or shantytowns. The testimonies of Lucia provide a unique glimpse into the social organization and institutions that provide the context within which inhabitants of these surroundings negotiate survival." —Contemporary Sociology

"The mass of the book is a fascinating exchange between the author and his subject as he tries to learn from her and tell her story.... Gay has achieved an extraordinary result by providing profound insights into a particular type of life usually overlooked in academic writing. As a result he provides a very personal and real account of how the violence and poverty facing Rio de Janeiro affect the lives of the often voiceless people who have to live with its most brutal results. Gay has, indeed, achieved a different sort of social science." —Qualitative Sociology

"Gay's Lucia offers a riveting portrait of the way these contending forces (gangs, drugs, the church) have shaped the life of one favela resident." —Latin American Research Review

"It is a provocative account of Lucia, a young inhabitant of one of Rio de Janeiro's dozens of favelas (shantytowns), and her ill-fated quest to defy the notion of destiny. Among other things, the book serves as an exemplary ethnography. ...I recommend this book as a sociological primer in ethnographic research; as a grassroots analysis of Latin America's social, political, and economic structure; and as a fascinating example of literary nonfiction." —Gender & Society

"(An) often heart-rending look into the life of one woman caught up in drug dealing, violence, police corruption and urban crime in Rio de Janeiro.... Gay's book combines a compelling first-person narrative with a balanced and accessibly written contextual analysis of the causes and effects of inequalities, urban violence and drug trafficking.... (T)he book's greatest strength (is) it offers a window into the particularities of one woman's life, a life like many others all too often dismissed or ignored." —Luso-Brazilian Review

"The chapters are well-constructed, with telling interviews followed by two to four pages of sociological analysis of the dialogues' themes that place Lucia's experiences in larger context.... This book offers a rich portrait...not by presenting a theoretical treatise from an abstract perspective, but by providing a poignant portrait of how these inequalities are experienced by Lucia 'on the ground." —Social Forces

"Lucia can almost be read as a novel, in which the reader anxiously wants to know the outcome of Lucia’s trajectory and shares the author’s declared hope that she manages to change her life. As a result, it is inevitable that the reader ends by partaking in the melancholy expressed by Gay as the book reaches its conclusion." —The Journal of Latin American Studies