The Five Seasons of Love by João Almino

translated by Elizabeth Jackson

In The Five Seasons of Love, acclaimed Brazilian writer João Almino presents a compelling and sympathetic portrait of a woman whose life has not turned out as she anticipated, and whose once audacious dreams have been replaced by half-truths, failures, and frustration. To fulfill a pact made during her student days, fifty-five-year-old Ana Kauffman plans a party to celebrate the new millennium. As old friends resurface and the countdown to the new century draws near, Ana's past undergoes a series of unexpected revisions—beginning with the arrival of Berta, the newly minted post-op persona of Ana's former boyfriend Norberto. Set amidst the chaos of contemporary Brasilia, a place where even the most basic human affairs—love, friendship, sex, and work—can take unlikely shapes, Ana's story is both relentlessly modern and profoundly timeless. Winner of the Casa de las Americas 2003 Literary Award, The Five Seasons of Love is an extraordinary novel by a writer at the height of his powers.

 João Almino (b. 1950) is a Brazilian writer and diplomat. He is the author of the acclaimed Brasília Trilogy, which is comprised of the novels Ideas on Where to Spend the End of the World, Samba-Enredo and The Five Seasons of Love (published in Portuguese by Editora Record; published in Spanish by Alfaguara, México). He obtained his PhD in Paris, where he studied under the philosopher Claude Lefort. An expert on the subject of authoritarianism and democracy in Brazil, his works of political philosophy include The Authoritarian Democrats, The Age of the Present, Secrecy and Information, Once Upon a Time a Constituent Assembly and Still Life: The Political Philosophy of Ecology. He has taught at Berkeley, Stanford, the Autonomous National University of Mexico and the University of Brasília.

Author's website: http://www.joaoalmino.com/

8.5" x 5.5"
156 pages