Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, the son of a mulatto father and a washerwoman, and the grandson of freed slaves, was not, originally, expecting literary encomiums in his lifetime, especially not for Brás Cubas. First appearing in Brazil in 1881, this remarkably experimental novel was never intended by its author to be a popular “run-of-the-mill-novel”. “I passed away at two o’clock in the afternoon on a Friday in August in 1869, in my beautiful mansion in the Catumbi district of the city.” So begins Machado de Assis’ Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas, told eerily from beyond the grave. Machado de Assis’ classic novel, the precursor of Latin American fiction, is finally rendered as a stunningly relevant work for 21st-century audiences. Jull Costa and Patterson offer a peerless translation of this comic masterpiece." (Parul Sehgal, New York Times ) "The most modern, most startlingly avant-garde novel I read this year was originally published in 1881. New York Times, " Times Critics Top Books of 2020"
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