Hailed in his lifetime as Brazil’s greatest writer, Machado de Assis (1839–1908) has found a new generation of readers. Originally published in 1891, Quincas Borba begins with the death of its titular character, a mad philosopher. Borba leaves his fortune—including his dog, also named Quincas Borba—to Rubião, his loyal caretaker. Adrift in the big, bad world, it isn’t long before Rubião is targeted by sycophants, smelling his naïveté. Playfully told by an omniscient and possibly unreliable narrator, the novel is at once irreverent and ambitious, brimming with barbed wit and keen philosophical inquiry. Brilliantly translated by the duo credited with introducing a new generation of readers to Machado through their translations of Dom Casmurro, The Collected Stories and Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas—Quincas Borba is another strikingly modern tale from a blazing progenitor of twentieth-century fiction.

"A writer one hundred years ahead of his time." -- Salman Rushdie
"Another Kafka." -- Allen Ginsburg
"The creator of a tremendous oeuvre and an inimitable sense of humour." -- José Saramago
"In the sureness of pace, the ingratiating swerve, Machado is peerless." -- Elizabeth Hardwick
"A great ironist, a tragic comedian… In his books, in their most comic moments, he underlines the suffering by making us laugh." -- Philip Roth

Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (1839–1908) was born in Rio de Janeiro and is the groundbreaking author of such works as Dom Casmurro and The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas. Margaret Jull Costa and Robin Patterson have translated the work of Lúcio Cardoso, Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen, and Clarice Lispector, among others. They live in England.