Samba

Alma Guillermoprieto. Vintage Books USA, $16 (256pp) ISBN 978-0-679-73256-3

Rio de Janeiro's carnival, seen in the foreign film Black Orpheus , is the site of an annual samba competition. ``Guillermoprieto vividly presents the individual stories of principal participants, analyzes the feelings they express in their music and dance, describes the contributions of the various samba schools and offers his interpretation of black Brazilian history and culture,'' said PW. (Aug.)

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