Antonio

(Paperback)

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Description

Benjamim, a young man on the cusp of fatherhood, discovers a disturbing family secret: before his father was born, his paternal grandfather had a child with Benjamim's mother. With both men dead, Benjamim turns to three of their confidantes to piece together his family history: Haroldo, his grandfather's best friend; Isabel, his grandmother; and Raul, a friend from his father's youth.

Through their conflicting testimonies, full of blind spots and contradictions, Benjamim will gradually learn of the secrets and conflicts that shattered his wealthy family; of his father's search for meaning in the poverty of the backlands, and of his slide into madness. In prose of great subtlety and penetrating insight, Beatriz Bracher builds an indelible portrait of a family and a society in decay.

Reviews

'Bracher brilliantly picks away at the web of secrets and lies plaguing a family and country' - New York Times

'Bracher takes a dazzling look at the invisible burdens that haunt a well-to-do family in contemporary Brazil... Bracher simultaneously pulls off a searing portrait of class in Sao Paulo... and of both hereditary trauma and family tenderness. This spellbinding and surprising work announced Bracher as one of the most fascinating contemporary Brazilian writers' - Publishers Weekly, starred review

'A sophisticated, multifaceted portrait of a family that endures nevertheless through its decline... An elegant and nuanced meditation on family, class, perception, illness, and death.' - Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)

'A singularly powerful voice of Brazilian contemporary literature' - Asymptote

Author Bio

Beatriz Bracher is a Brazilian author, editor and screenwriter. She co-founded the publisher Editora 34, where she worked until 2000. She has published four novels and two collections of short stories and is the recipient of the Clarice Lispector Prize, the Rio Prize and the Sao Paulo Prize.