Synopses & Reviews
A brilliant, magisterial novel of family secrets simmering beneath the surface
Benjamin, on the verge of becoming a father, discovers a tragic family secret involving patrimony and determines to get to the root of. Those most immediately involved are all dead, but their three closest confidantes are still alive — Isabel, his grandmother; Haroldo, his grandfather’s friend; and Raul, his father’s friend — and each will tell him a different version of the facts.
By collecting these shards of memories, which offer personal glimpses into issues of class and politics in Brazil, Benjamin will piece together the painful puzzle of his family history. Like a Faulkner novel, Beatriz Bracher’s brilliant Antonio shows the expansiveness of past events and the complexity of untangling long-buried secrets.
Review
"This spellbinding and surprising work announced Bracher as one of the most fascinating contemporary Brazilian writers. " Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Review
"No one but Beatriz Bracher would be able to write a book like Antonio in Brazil today, because only she manages to write so intimately and forcefully, so ironically and bitterly, about the bourgeois upper class." Jornal do Brasil
About the Author
Beatriz Bracher, born in Sao Paulo in 1961, grew up under the Brazilian military dictatorship. Her memories of that time intersect with the lives of people whose friends and lovers were tortured, exiled, and killed, as well as with those who did the killing. An editor, screenwriter, and the author of six books of fiction, Bracher has won three of Brazil's most prestigious literary awards: the Clarice Lispector Prize, the Rio Prize, and the Sao Paulo Prize.
A writer and translator based in California, Adam Morris has translated novels by Hilda Hilst and Joao Gilberto Noll.