The Posthumous Memoirs of Brs Cubas

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 Garca Mrquez 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 . . . [Brs Cubas is] superb company * The New York Times *

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 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. Dave Eggers 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.