Germano Almeida,Sheila Faria Glaser
New Directions is proud to introduce the masterwork of Cape Verde's greatest living writer, Germano Almeida: an ironic and original tragic-comedy from a new voice in African literature., Everyone in Cape Verde knows SeÃ±or da Silva. Successful entrepreneur, owner of the island's first automobile, a most serious, upright, and self-made businessman, SeÃ±or da Silva is the local success story. Born an orphan, he never married, he never splurged; one good suit was good enough for him; and he never wandered from the straight and narrow. , Or so everyone thought. , But when SeÃ±or da Silva's 387-page Last Will and Testament is read aloud; a marathon task on a hot afternoon which exhausts reader after reader; there's eye-opening news, and not just for the smug nephew so certain of inheriting all SeÃ±or da Silva's property., With his will, SeÃ±or da Silva leaves a memoir that is a touching web of elaborate self-deceptions. He desired so ardently to prosper, to be taken seriously, to join (perhaps, if they'll have him) the exclusive GrÃ©mio country club, and, most of all, to be a good man. And yet, shady deals, twists of fate, an illegitimate child: such is the lot of poor, self-critical SeÃ±or da Silva. A bit like Calvino's Mr. Palomar in his attention to protocol and in his terror of life's passions; a bit like Svevo's Zeno (a little pompous, a little old-fashioned, and often hapless), SeÃ±or da Silva moves along a deliciously blurry line between farce and tragedy: a self-important buffoon becomes a fully human, even tragic, figure in the arc of this hilarious and touching novel - translated into Spanish, German, French, Italian, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish, and now, at last, English.
Fiction,Cultural,Africa,Western Africa,Cabo Verde,Literature,African Literature,Earth,The World,Contemporary,European Literature,Portuguese Literature,Romance,Africa,Western Africa,Novels
The Last Will & Testament of Senhor da Silva AraÃºjo