These stories and sketches set in Brazil's largest city, São Paulo, show how people cope with life in this concrete jungle. The city forces them to struggle for their daily bread and their mental wellbeing, a struggle that often comes at a high price. A garbage collector is killed by a hit and run driver a week after having his picture taken with the Brazilian president. A foreigner falls for a disfigured young girl from a favela and restores her beauty but at an emotional cost he did not foresee. A veteran American conflict negotiator finds it as hard to deal with an egoistic Brazilian businessman as Latin American guerrilla commanders or African warlords. On the eve of becoming state governor, a politician is seduced by his own wife with fateful results. A woman sprays a plaintive message on a wall for all to see after being betrayed by her lover. Marca: JOHN BRANDER FITZPATRICK