The Eternal Son by Cristovao Tezza

The Eternal Son by Cristovao Tezza

Explores our love affair with booze, meeting alcopop-swigging teens who drink to fit in, beer-swilling blokes on the sports field, and marketing bigwigs blamed for fostering binge drinking. This book features an insightful exploration of why we drink, how we got here, and what happens when we turn off the tap.

‘An unflinching and eloquent book’

* Canberra Times *

‘The Eternal Son requires the dedicated reader, not because it describes the relationship between a gifted father and a handicapped son, but because it does so in painstaking, often painful, detail. Classified as a novel, for which Tezza won every major fiction award in Brazil in 2008, it is more an extended essay. (Australian-born Alison Entrekin is the prize-winning translator). Rarely does writing in the third person seem so poignantly autobiographical.’

* Courier Mail *

‘In his autobiographical novel, Brazilian author Tezza applies unflinching honesty and a writer's inquisitiveness to the story of his gradual acceptance of his own son ... A remarkable tale of a father finding humility.’/p>

* Sun Herald *

‘Felipe grows and so, we see, does his father … The reader, once challenged and repulsed, becomes sympathetic, feels privileged. This is, in the end, a deeply moving portrait of a father truly loving the son he has.’

* Sunday Express, UK *

‘This excellent book, which has won every major Brazilian literary prize, describes the reactions of a young man to the birth and growth of his son, a child with Down syndrome ... The ruminatory style is never static or suffocating, and although the father can be said to learn and grow (as does his son), Tezza doesn't embarrass us or cheapen the material by signpointing a moral journey. He doesn't try to move us, either, and the book doesn't treat us to an emotional splurge as a reward for enduring the confronting subject matter: but it is highly intelligent, drily humorous, and beautifully written (and translated, by Australian-born Alison Entrain).’

-- Owen Richardson * The Age *

‘Often confronting and uncomfortable, The Eternal Son explores lives and emotions rarely touched on. Significantly, Tezza does so without wallowing in pity or in a self-righteous sense of overcoming adversity.’

-- Jose Borghino * The Australian *

‘Drawing on his own experiences, Brazilian Cristovao gives us an acute and sometimes brutal look into the mind of a young father whose first son is born with Down Syndrome ... It is easy to see why this book attracted a slew of awards...’

* The Dominion Post Weekend *

Cristovão Tezza, one of Brazil’s foremost contemporary novelists, was born in 1952. He has published thirteen novels, including O Filho Eterno (The Eternal Son), which won every major literary prize in Brazil in 2008 and has been translated into seven languages. Australian translator Alison Entrekin has translated over forty books from the Portuguese, including the classics City of God by Paulo Lins, Near to the Wild Heart by Clarice Lispector, and My Sweet Orange Tree by José Mauro de Vasconcelos. In 2019, she was awarded the New South Wales Premier’s Translation Prize and PEN medallion for the body of her work. Other honours include shortlistings for the 2004 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, the 2012 IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and the 2013 PEN America Translation Prize. She teaches literary translation privately, and occasionally writes about translation (in Portuguese) at: https://www.revistapessoa.com.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781922247025
ISBN 10	1922247022
Title	The Eternal Son
Author	Cristovao Tezza
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Scribe Publications
Year published	2013-08-29
Number of pages	224
Prizes	Winner of São Paulo Art Critics’ Association Award for that year’s best work of fiction, the Portugal–Telecom Award, the São Paulo Literature Award, all for best novel or work of fiction (Brazil)., Short-listed for International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2012 (Ireland)
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.