The Wager: Aire's Journal (Peter Owen Modern Classics)

Set in Rio de Janeiro on the eve of the abolition of slavery in 1888, this tells the poignant story of an elderly diplomat captivated by a beautiful young widow. Imbued with autumnal sadness, it shrewdly and ironically portrays a man coming to terms with the passing of the world he knows, and with his own old age and death. De Assis (1839-1908) displays in his ninth novel the dry wit and measured understanding of human nature that earned him his reputation as Brazil's first major writer."" - Publishers Weekly. ""It is not enough to say that he is an important American novelist; he is one of the masters in either hemisphere."" - NY Times.