Librería Samer Atenea
Kálamo Books
Librería Elías (Asturias)
Librería Kolima (Madrid)
Librería Proteo (Málaga)
’The seed of madness exists in all of us and with no warning may attack overpower crush and bury us ... ’Policarpo Quaresma - fastidious civil servant dedicated patriot self-styled visionary - is a defender of all things Brazilian full of schemes to improve his beloved homeland. Yet somehow each of his ventures whether it is petitioning for Brazil’s national language to be changed buying a farm to prove the richness and fertility of the land or offering support to government forces as they suppress a military revolt - results in ridicule and disaster. Quixotic and hapless Quaresma’s dreams will eventually be his undoing. Funny despairing moving and absurd Lima Barreto’s masterpiece shows a man and a country caught in the violent clash between illusion and reality hope and decline sanity and madness.
