In 2010, when Brazilian-born journalist Juliana Barbassa joined the Associated Press Brazil desk, Rio de Janeiro had just been awarded the 2016 Olympics, to follow the 2014 World Cup. The economy was booming, President Lula da Silva was at the height of his popularity and the feeling among Rio's Cariocas was that their time had come. Then the Brazil soccer team was crushed by Germany in the Cup semifinals; Lula's successor, Dilma Rousseff, was under fire for corruption; and executives of Petrobras were caught stealing millions of dollars from the state-owned oil company. What was going on down there? Dancing with the Devil in the City of God is Barbassa's story about the city of her birth and its many contradictions, celebrations and tribulations.
Moving from one neighborhood and urban problem to another, Barbassa stumbles into a convoluted bureaucratic nightmare renting an apartment. She visits the gigantic Gramacho landfill that holds 60 million tons of trash, which will be closed for the Olympics with no replacement plan in place. Guided by a biologist and crocodile expert, she sees where the area's native caimans are being run off by new high-rise condos near the proposed Olympic Villages. Although Rio is her hometown, Barbassa doesn't shy from the many problems hidden behind its glittering facade. Nevertheless, one can see her smiling in agreement with a comment she overhears from a British visitor to the World Cup: "I'm here in the sun, right, up to my waist in water, drinking a beer, and watching football. What's not to like?" --Bruce Jacobs, founding partner, Watermark Books & Cafe, Wichita, Kan.