The gripping English debut of the famous and hugely talented Brazilian writer Victor Heringer, who died tragically young. In a Rio de Janeiro suburb in the 1970s, a married couple, their daughter, and crippled teenage son Camilo, take in an orphan named Cosme. Their teen boys unexpectedly fall in love, but their intimate world is shattered when Cosme is killed by a neighbor in a brutal hate crime. Decades later, Camilo returns to his hometown, still haunted by this violence and the long shadow of Brazil’s military dictatorship. A fluid queer coming-of-age story as well as an incisive and unforgiving exploration of Brazilian society and politics, Heringer’s moving novel is worthy of Machado de Assis.
