Overview

In this deadly-funny debut novel by renowned Brazilian actress Fernanda Torres, five macho friends in Rio's Copacabana reflect on their hedonistic glory days-now supplanted by the indignities of aging-in what turn out to be their final moments. With uncanny insight into the less virtuous corners of the male psyche, Fernanda Torres brings us five friends who once milked the high life of Rio's Bossa Nova age and are now left with memories-parties, marriages, divorces, fixations, inhibitions, bad decisions-and the grim realities of getting old. Alvaro lives alone and bemoans the evils of his ex-wife. Silvio can't give up the excesses of sex and drugs. Ribeiro is a vain, Viagra-abusing beach bum. Neto is the square, a faithful husband until the end. Ciro is the Don Juan envied by all-but the first to die. Cutting in on these swan songs are the testimonies of those the men seduced, cheated, loved, and abandoned: their wives and children. Edgy, funny, and wise, The End is a candid tropical tragicomedy and an epitaph for a lost generation of machos.

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9781632061218

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Reviews

The End is an impressive and dizzying narrative that gathers meaning around the many misfortunes, climaxes, offenses, triumphs, and disappointments that constitute a life or, in this case, lives. Five friends in Rio recount their stories as they grapple with the uncertainty of their imminent deaths. As readers, we get the unique pleasure of seeing the many watershed moments that change the course of a friendship from an array of perspectives. For the life of me, I can't understand how Fernanda Torres keeps this rich cast of characters and buffet of absorbing action straight. One can merely delight in the complexity of life presented in these pages, understood all the better through the lens of death. <p/>--John Gibbs, Green Apple Books on the Park (San Francisco, CA)

The End is an impressive and dizzying narrative that gathers meaning around the many misfortunes, climaxes, offenses, triumphs, and disappointments that constitute a life or, in this case, lives. Five friends in Rio recount their stories as they grapple with the uncertainty of their imminent deaths. As readers, we get the unique pleasure of seeing the many watershed moments that change the course of a friendship from an array of perspectives. For the life of me, I can't understand how Fernanda Torres keeps this rich cast of characters and buffet of absorbing action straight. One can merely delight in the complexity of life presented in these pages, understood all the better through the lens of death. --John Gibbs, Green Apple Books on the Park (San Francisco, CA)

This book reveals a writer in full command of her art. In it are smells, sounds, objects, situations, reasoning, emotion, humor, complexity.... The author gives herself over to the mean, dirty world of her characters. Their voices are distinct.... The plot flows without feeling contrived, without seeking to teach lessons. The language is colorful, lively, molds itself around the characters, surges forward. This is a serious book in which humor is important: there is crudeness, the confrontation of problems, the pursuit of expression. It is through a group of old friends that Copacabana is revealed. And what one sees is the failure of a middle class who believed in the hedonism that has historically been associated with this part of Rio de Janeiro.... Breathtaking, a stunning debut. --Mario Sergio Conti

Author Information

About the Author: Fernanda Torres was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1965. She is an actress and writer. She has enjoyed a successful career in the theatre, cinema and on television for thirty-five years and has received many awards, including Best Actress at the 1986 Cannes Film Festival. She is a columnist for the newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo and the magazine Veja-Rio and contributes to the magazine Piaui. The End is her first novel. About the Translator: Alison Entrekin has translated a number of works by Brazilian and Portuguese authors, including Clarice Lispector, Paulo Lins, and Chico Buarque.

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