2005 · Record / Companhia das Letras
Solitude, desire, and choice in the urban experience of São Paulo.
The debut novel, first published in 2005 and revised for a new Companhia das Letras edition in 2023.
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A middle-aged, hypochondriac womanizer in the city of São Paulo: this is Matias Grappeggia. Married to Susana for twenty-four years, he considers his life well balanced. A successful professional, he leads an enviable existence, yet harbors no ambitions for personal happiness, resigned to the unsatisfying world he has created around himself.
A sexual encounter with a stranger unexpectedly upends Matias Grappeggia's routine. Over the course of four days, he will revisit memories, observe the people around him, and understand more about himself than he would like. In search of a woman who will become, at once, his happiness and his ruin, Matias crosses São Paulo and discovers that “a life can be completely transformed over the course of a single night.”
Alternating suspense and humor, lyricism and tension, Alexandre Vidal Porto lays bare the encounters and missed connections between a man, a woman, and a marriage. A small urban tragedy, written in lucid, ironic prose, that intrigues, engages, and moves the reader.
About the book
In this fully revised second edition of his debut novel, Alexandre Vidal Porto portrays a man trapped in the Kafkaesque nightmare of everyday life and his desperate — if ultimately unsuccessful — attempt to break free.