It’s All River

Description

Lucy is a prostitute. She has the power to seduce any man she wants. In this small Brazilian town, it doesn’t matter if a man is single or married or what his profession is. If Lucy wants him, she takes him. She is powerful and desired by all—except one man. Naturally, Lucy becomes obsessed with the one man who denies her, who repeatedly rejects her services.

Venâncio is a quiet carpenter. He is married to a woman named Dalva, but that’s not the reason he refuses Lucy’s seduction attempts. Dalva and Venâncio are having marriage problems, deep and seemingly irreparable. Venâncio goes to the brothel often to have sex with every professional there other than Lucy.

Carla Madeira’s It’s All River is a steaming, explicit adult novel with all the explosive drama of a telenovela with added darkness and graphic sexuality. For all its lewdness, the short novel uses unfolding characterizations as a source to spring a stream of mature explorations of relationships and the meaning of love.

“Love isn’t at all unconditional; it has the weaknesses of organic matter. It rots, frays, tears, ignites, ends. And how it ends. Like people, it depends on what it consumes.”