In the 1940s, Orson Welles set out to make a film about Brazil, entitled It's All True. The footage, however, was lost. Such events have littered the progress of this nation built of dreams and misadventures. In a contemporary journey through space and time in Brazil, this book describes the tensions between colonial power structures and modern democracy, between Catholic saints and African spirits and between teeming cities and virgin rain forests. Swept along by the carnival fervour, the author of this book is lost amid contrasts, along streets where seven million urchins sleep at the feet of luxury apartment blocks - a place where TV is king. The author also wrote French Blues.