Bøker av Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis

Margaret Jull Costa and Robin Patterson's critically acclaimed translations of Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas and The Collected Stories of Machado de Assis introduced a new generation of readers to one of Brazil's most ground-breaking authors. Hailed as "the greatest writer ever produced in Latin America" (Susan Sontag), Machado's genius is on full display in this fresh translation of the 1899 classic Dom Casmurro. In his supposed memoir, Bento Santiago, an engaging yet unreliable narrator, suspects his wife, Capitu, of having an affair with his closest friend. Withdrawn and obsessive, our antihero mines the origins of their love story: from childhood neighbours playing innocently in the backyard to his brief spell in a seminary to marriage and the birth of their child-whom, he fears, does not resemble him. A gripping domestic drama brimming with Machado's signature humour, this is another stunningly modern tale from the progenitor of twentieth-century fiction.

Hailed in his lifetime as Brazil's greatest writer, Machado de Assis has found a new generation of readers through a series of critically acclaimed translations by Margaret Jull Costa and Robin Patterson. Now, the duo returns to breathe new life into the irreverent, ambitious and darkly funny Quincas Borba. Originally published in 1891, the novel begins with the death of its titular character, a mad philosopher infamous for spouting pessimistic theories of Humanitism. Borba leaves his fortune-including his dog, also named Quincas Borba-to Rubião, his loyal caretaker. Adrift in the big, bad, bustling world of late-1860s Rio de Janeiro, it isn't long before Rubião is targeted by the city's sycophants, who can smell his naïveté from a mile away. Playfully told by an omniscient-and possibly unreliable-narrator, and rife with Machado's signature satirical jabs, Quincas Borba is another strikingly modern tale from a blazing progenitor of twentieth-century fiction.

Machado de Assis's iconic novel, now considered a progenitor of twentieth-century South American fiction, is finally rendered as a stunningly modern work.

"Esau and Jacob" is the last of Machado de Assis's four great novels. At one level, the story of Brazil itself, it is the story of twin brothers in love with the same woman. Assis presents a study of the doubts and insecurities of the human condition, rather than an heroic bible fable.

This new translation of a classic Brazilian novel, originally published in 1900, includes an informative introduction and notes by John Gledson, which set the novel in its historical context.

This "watershed collection" (The Wall Street Journal) now appears in a selected paperback edition with twenty-six of Machado's finest stories.

The stories in this volume reflect Machado's post-1880 emphasis on social satire and experimentation in psychological realism.

A retired Brazilian diplomat (Ayres) recounts the love affair of a young widow who would rather be faithful to her dead Romeo. In this book, how she rejoins the world of the living, rekindling Ayres' spirit as well, is told with muted allusions to Brazil's plantation life and its emancipation of the slaves.