A revelatory new translation of the playful, incomparable
masterpiece of one of the greatest black authors in the
Americas
A Penguin Classic
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (1839-1908), the mixed-race grandson
of freed slaves, was born in Rio de Janeiro. Largely self-taught,
he wrote many novels, stories, plays, and poems, eventually
becoming the first President of the Brazilian Academy of Letters
and gaining recognition as Brazil's greatest writer.
Flora Thomson-DeVeaux (translator/introducer) is a translator,
writer, and researcher who studied Spanish and Portuguese at
Princeton University and earned a PhD in Portuguese and Brazilian
studies from Brown University. She lives in Rio de Janeiro, where
she is the research director of the podcast series Radio
Novelo.
Dave Eggers (foreword) is the bestselling author of more than ten
books, including A Hologram for the King, a finalist for the
National Book Award; What Is the What, a finalist for the National
Book Critics Circle Award; and A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering
Genius, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. His work has been
translated into more than forty languages, and his nonfiction and
journalism have appeared The New Yorker, The Best American Travel
Writing, and The Best American Essays. The founder of McSweeney's,
a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the
winner of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, Eggers lives in Northern
California with his family.
A glittering masterwork and an unmitigated joy to read . . . It is
wholly original and unlike anything other than the many books that
came after it and seem to have knowingly or not borrowed from it. .
. . This translation is a glorious gift to the world, because it
sparkles, because it sings, because it's very funny and manages to
capture Machado's inimitable tone, at once mordant and wistful,
self-lacerating and romantic
*Dave Eggers*
A writer a hundred years ahead of his time . . . If Borges is the
writer who made García Márquez possible, then it is no exaggeration
to say that Machado de Assis is the writer who made Borges
possible
*Salman Rushdie*
One of those thrillingly original, radically skeptical books that
will always impress readers with the force of private discovery
*Susan Sontag*
Is it possible that the most modern, most startlingly avant-garde
novel to appear this year was originally published in 1881? . . .
Machado's book represents the moment when the novel learned to
dance. . . . Flora Thomson-DeVeaux's edition is a gift to scholars
. . . [Brás Cubas is] superb company
*The New York Times*
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