Book Summary and Reviews of Memorial de Ayres by Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis

Book Summary

In the final novel by one of the greatest writers in the Americas, an aging diplomat bears witness to the shifting cultural tides of nineteenth-century Brazil.

Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis has been hailed as one of Latin America's greatest writers, a progenitor of modernism and a masterful ironist known for his inspired critiques of nineteenth-century Brazil. Memorial de Ayres is his final novel, released just two months before his death in 1908.

In your hands is the diary of Counselor Ayres, a retired diplomat now dedicated to chronicling his day-to-day happenings during the waning years of the Brazilian Empire. Ayres will be the first to tell you that he lives a simple life: the most eventful part of his week is lunch with his sister Rita or a visit to their family cemetery.

But a new love interest―and a bet with Rita―pushes Ayres from the confines of his quiet routine into the cheery home of the Aguiars, an older couple who, like him, are childless. Soon, the merriment is permeated by whispers that the power of the empire is fading―the end of slavery draws near. As Brazil's well-to-do ponder the momentous changes afoot over card games and afternoon coffee, Ayres finds himself suddenly unsure of his place in the shifting milieu: "Everything in this world goes in fashions, except for the stars and me."

Memorial de Ayres marks the latest installment in Margaret Jull Costa and Robin Patterson's groundbreaking series of Machado translations, the duo credited with introducing a new generation of readers to the classic author. Shot through with Machado's signature sly humor and psychological subtlety, and set during a singularly transformative time in Brazil's history, Memorial de Ayres is a quietly prescient tale of personal and national legacy.