One Hundred Bottles

<p><i>One Hundred Bottles</i> with its intersecting characters and unresolved whodunits can be read as a murder mystery. But it's really a survivor's story. In a voice that blends gossip storytelling and literature Z-the vivacious heroine of Portela's award-winning novel-relates her rum-soaked encounters with the lesbian underground the characters carving up her home and the terrifying-but-irresistible Moisés. As entertaining as any detective drama <i>One Hundred Bottles</i> is ultimately made real by very rough love intense friendship and something small that decides to live.</p>