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.
“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 São 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
“Bracher crafts a layered story which brims with mystery and tension... a darkly poetic and deeply moving tragedy” ASYMPTOTE
“An intricate multigenerational saga, Bracher's novel is stunning in its complexity and magisterial in its storytelling... It is a captivating story, full of the seductive pull of family secrets and colorful characters. Yet the novel becomes a masterpiece in its use of form to examine the nature of storytelling, the fallibility of memory, and the limitations of perspective
