Built in the 1960s, the City of God has by the 1980s become a very dangerous place to live. A lack of opportunities and hope often leads the children of the City of God onto a path of drugs, crime and corruption, and it seems more palatable to many of them to have their 15 minutes of fame and die young than to live a life of misery and submission.

But some manage to break the cycle of violence - and the main character and narrator of City of God, Rocket, is one of them. A poor, black youth who leaves a life of crime behind to become a professional photographer, Rocket must struggle against the odds to make his way through the violence that surrounds him, shooting pictures instead of people and finding redemption in his artistic vision.

As his story unfolds, we meet others in his world: Benny, the most popular guy in the slum and a partner in crime to L'il Ze, an ambitious and powerful villain who wants to be the slum's drug leader; and Knockout Ned, who tries very hard to have a decent life but ultimately gets dragged deep into crime.

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