City of God by Paulo Lins

I have been looking forward to reading this book for literally 10 years. Recommended to me by Adriana in college, I kept looking for it in English. It was not translated until this year, after a movie was made from it. I guess I was expecting this description of life in a famous Brazilian slum to read like a Jonathan Kozol book (e.g., Amazing Grace). It was more of a non-linear dream-like description of the violence, drugs, and power struggles throughout three generations of the slum. Paulo Lins himself grew up in this environment, then embedded himself for ten years to write this book. A challenging read.