1881
The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas
Machado de Assis · 1839–1908 · Brazil
Originally Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas (Portuguese)
Why it matters
A dead man narrates his own useless life with mordant, digressive glee, dedicating the book to the first worm to gnaw his corpse. Startlingly modern comedy from nineteenth-century Rio.
At a glance
satirepostmodernphilosophical novel
Difficulty 6/10medium pace272 pagesDigressive, fourth-wall-breaking chapters narrated by a dead man defy linear reading habits.
Deep dive
Why a novel dedicated to a worm insists on interrupting itself constantly, and what its narrator's habit of contradicting his own excuses is really doing.
Where to go next
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