Heliopolis

August 23, 2010
Today's São Paulo, where great wealth and grinding poverty exist side by side, is a star player in Scudamore's absorbing second novel (after The Amnesia Clinic). Born in the slums of São Paulo, Ludo dos Santos lucked out when, as a child, the extravagantly wealthy Zé Fischer Carnicelli took in Ludo and his mother, giving her a job as domestic help and him a safe place to live. Now grown, Ludo is having trouble finding his way: the company he works for profits by exploiting those unlucky enough to live in the slums; his boss is perpetually disappointed in him (late night partying has Ludo snoozing on the bathroom floor at work); and he's having sex with Melissa, a married woman who happens to be his adoptive sister. But what begins as an innocuous run-in with a street kid launches Ludo on an existential quest that could have mortal implications. Issues of race and class spark a wily, layered, and savvy narrative ("money makes you whiter," Ludo says) where nods to Great Expectations coexist nicely with Scudamore's morbid humor and blistering social commentary.

September 1, 2010

This is a brave and captivating novel about a potentially dry, academic subject--economic inequality--which Scudamore (The Amnesia Clinic) brings vividly to life. The setting is Sao Paulo, Brazil, where slums and sprawling shantytowns abut glittering office towers and extraordinary affluence. Drug lords run the ghetto and provide social services, security, and their own form of justice. The wealthy fly above the fray in their helicopters, landing in their gated and heavily fortified communities, seldom acknowledging the poverty below. Protagonist Ludo is a conflicted character who bridges these two worlds; as a young boy, he was rescued from the slums and adopted by a rich businessman and his wife. VERDICT This ambitious novel is built around a vital question--How should we live in the face of such devastating poverty?--and it is to Scudamore's credit that he both asks it and then engages it with great sympathy, courage, and intelligence. The result is a richly detailed, beautifully executed work that should move readers deeply.--Patrick Sullivan, Manchester Community Coll., CT

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2010
A child of the slums, Ludwig Ludo Aparecido dos Santos is blessed by being taken in as an infant by supermarket magnate Ze Fischer Carnicelli, whose humanitarian wife, Rebecca, is so enchanted by the flavor of beans and rice on a visit to the Brazilian shantytown, or favela, that she hires Ludos mother as a cook. At 14, Ludo is adopted by his benefactor, who educates him in the States, then puts him in a pointless marketing job: Alchemy exists; we call it branding, thats all. At 27, Ludo is in a decidedly unbrotherly intimate relationship with his adoptive sister, Melissa, when an assignment to pitch a new string of markets aimed at the poor residents of the favela leads to Ludos unearthing the truth about his heritage. Scudamore (The Amnesia Clinic, 2007) vividly portrays a city based on So Paulo, with its haves (living in a gated city) and its more populous have-nots, as he tells Ludos story in flashbacks and explores the issue of belonging. A Booker Prize nominee, this pulses with the vibranceand occasional violenceof city life.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)