The Novelist Who Made Honesty Look Suspicious

This Machado de Assis collection brings together meddlesome narrators, jealous husbands, rival brothers, and respectable people with wonderfully questionable judgment. Fortunes change hands, politics gets personal, and the line between wisdom and madness depends rather too much on who’s drawing it. From beyond-the-grave gossip to diplomatic discretion, these tales turn love, ambition, and self-deception into a comedy of very bad explanations. It’s for readers who like their wit dry, their scandals simmering, and everyone’s version of events open to appeal.