"Rio de Janeiro is under siege. The poor communities and the favelas on the hills are submitted to a mix of terror and populism by the drug traffickers. The affluent classes live under fear of organized crime. Most of the police are involved in corruption and lethal violence. Despite this overwhelming presence, life in the favelas is not well known. Robert Gay has written a rigorous, but at the same time compassionate, study of the complex strategies for survival in those surroundings. In this outstanding book we are able to hear, through Lucia, the voice of those brave (and neglected) survivors."-Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, Senior Researcher, Center for the Study of Violence, University of Sao Paulo, and former Secretary of State for Human Rights, Brazil "Lucia is an outstanding book. Robert Gay does a splendid job of laying out and expanding the lives of Lucia and of those who intersect with her. He makes them live by explaining social organizations and institutions-gangs, prison, school, work, economy and religion-within the context of people's lives. Gay offers a rich, superbly readable narrative that develops these important themes. Lucia provides depth and breadth to a subject about which there is little empirical research; it teaches sociology in an interesting and informed way."-Martha Huggins, Charles A. and Leo M. Favrot Professor of Human Relations, Tulane University "If you can no longer recall the stomach-churning depictions of Rio de Janeiro favelas from the 2002 film City of God, this true account of one mujer's life in the Brazilian underworld-trying to survive local gangs and merciless rule of her drug-lord boyfriend-will bring it all back."-Latina