Hailed in his lifetime as Brazil’s greatest writer, Machado de Assis (1839–1908) has found a new generation of readers. Originally published in 1891, Quincas Borba begins with the death of its titular character, a mad philosopher. Borba leaves his fortune—including his dog, also named Quincas Borba—to Rubião, his loyal caretaker. Adrift in the big, bad world, it isn’t long before Rubião is targeted by sycophants, smelling his naïveté. Playfully told by an omniscient and possibly unreliable narrator, the novel is at once irreverent and ambitious, brimming with barbed wit and keen philosophical inquiry. Brilliantly translated by the duo credited with introducing a new generation of readers to Machado through their translations of Dom Casmurro, The Collected Stories and Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas—Quincas Borba is another strikingly modern tale from a blazing progenitor of twentieth-century fiction.

Translated by: Margaret Jull Costa, Robin Patterson