This is quite a demanding and challenging read but one I felt repaid the effort. Galera is a Brazilian writer and this atmospheric and really quite strange novel will deservedly bring him to the attention of an English-speaking audience. I sometimes felt that I was out of my depth and would appreciate the chance to discuss the book at some point. But there’s enough going on on the surface to make it a riveting if unsettling read.After his father’s suicide, and now in possession of his father’s dog, with which he develops a close and important relationship, the unnamed protagonist finds himself haunted by the story of his grandfather’s death – or supposed death. He decides to visit the small seaside town where the murder allegedly took place. A swimming and athletic coach, he finds a house and job in Garopaba and starts to ask for information. It appears that his grandfather had been well known there but a mystery surrounds his disappearance, and an unwillingness to discuss the matter becomes more and more sinister. Exploring themes of guilt and remorse, love and intimacy, memory and denial, responsibility and evasion, there’s a lot to think about here – although it is also possible to just concentrate on the thriller aspect.Dark and suspenseful as it is, I was engaged with the storyline for about two thirds of the book but towards the end it seemed to lose its way and I began to get impatient with it. Nevertheless, it’s a haunting and original novel which will stay with me for some time, and I’m very grateful to Netgalley for enabling me to discover such an interesting writer. I received a free e-ARC of this book from Penguin First to Read, in exchange for an honest review.This is a rather strange, but thoughtful book. It's told as a story within a story--a young man describing the life of his uncle, who in turn investigates the past of his father and grandfather. There are footnotes of whole new conversations in a few areas, and the lack of quotation marks around dialogue or dialogue tags sometimes makes the story difficult to follow. But if you're interested in a story about identity, love, failure, forgiveness, and destiny--then the book is worth the effort. The focus of the story begins when the nameless narrator's father commits suicide, after telling him an intriguing and very incomplete story about his grandfather. The grandfather was probably killed, but maybe he wasn't--and so the narrator travels to Garopaba, the town where this puzzling maybe-homicide took place. It's a little town full of locals disrupted by the tourist trade flocking to their beaches and waters, but reliant on the money, as well. The attitude is tense and relaxed at the same time, the first of many paradoxes in the story. As a ghost of the past, asking questions he shouldn't be, he isn't exactly welcomed--but he forms connections and tries to uncover the truth nonetheless.There's a philosophical element to this story, less about what happens and more about what these happenings mean. Sometimes the shape of the story makes it a little hard to follow what has actually occurred, but in the end, that's not important, and leaves the opportunity for reflection. The story itself tells you that reality is subjective, and can only be known up to a certain point. This is a book that provokes thought and questions, that makes you want to argue with the characters, who are all flawed and interesting through the narrator's eyes. And it's his point of view that really makes the story shine, unique, plagued by some neurological problems, at once pragmatic and dreamlike.An excellent read for people who like to think, those interested in how the past affects the present, the changes in society driven by technology, and the role of choice in our lives. The blank pages in between the sections make me suspect there might be something interesting there that the readers of the final version will see, too.
What do You think about Blood-Drenched Beard (2012)?
I read the German translation. Outstanding book.
—Don
