A CABEÇA DO SANTO

Shortly before dying, Samuel’s mother makes him a final request: to find the grandmother and father he has never met. Reluctantly, he fulfills the promise and walks the journey from Juazeiro do Norte to the small town of Candeia, enduring the harsh sun of Ceará’s sertão.
Upon arriving in this nearly ghost town, he finds shelter in a curious place: the hollow, gigantic head of an unfinished statue of Saint Anthony, separated from the rest of the body. But the oddities don’t stop there: Samuel begins to hear a jumble of female voices only when he is inside the statue’s head. Frightened, he realizes these are the prayers women offer to the saint, speaking of love.
His first contact in town is with Francisco, a young man who soon becomes his friend and decides to help him commercially explore his gift of listening, arranging marriages and other romantic schemes. Once stuck in time, the town gradually comes back to life as it is taken over by devotees from all around, drawn by Samuel’s extraordinary power. Amid this turmoil, he will also fall in love with a mysterious voice that stands out among the many echoing inside the saint’s head.
Already renowned for her children’s and young adult books, writer Socorro Acioli presents her first novel for an adult audience, developed in the workshop How to Tell a Tale, promoted by Gabriel García Márquez in Cuba.