An audio book. 3 narrators recount the recent history of a Brazilian family through generations. The obligations of love and blood are complicated by a father and son marrying the same woman. Issues of class are addressed. Fate, nature/nurture, and madness are pervasive themes. Too many slow passages for me.
Other reviews
- Ally Findley (An intricate multigenerational saga, Bracher’s novel is stunning in its complexity and magisterial in its storytelling ... A novel of family secrets, the story is eerily Oedipal, both father and son believing there is something ancient, blood-deep, and inevitable about their pull to Elenir, to the sons they each had with her, who were both given the same name: Benjamim. ... In the simplest terms, it is a captivating story, full of the seductive pull of family secrets and colorful characters. Yet the novel becomes a masterpiece in its use of form to examine the nature of storytelling, the fallibility of memory, and the limitations of perspective.)
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- Kirkus reviews
