The Eternal Son

Cristovao Tezza

Aug 2013 · Tagus Press at UMass Dartmouth

About this ebook

In this multi-award-winning autobiographical novel, CristovÜo Tezza draws readers into the mind of a young father whose son, Felipe, is born with Down syndrome. From the initial shock of diagnosis, and through his growing understanding of the world of hospitals and therapies, Tezza threads the story of his sonÍs life with his own.

Felipe, who lives in an eternal present, becomes a remarkable young man; for Tezza, however, the story is a settling of accounts with himself and his own limitations and ultimately a coming to terms with the sublime ironies and arbitrariness of life. He struggles with the phantom of shame, as if his sonÍs condition were an indication of his own worth, and yearns for a ñnormalî world that is always out of reach. Reading this compelling book is like stumbling through a trapdoor into the writerÍs mind, where nothing is censored and everything is constantly examined and reinterpreted.

About the author

CRISTOVAO 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 was shortlisted for the 2012 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. ALISON ENTREKIN has translated a number of works by Brazilian authors, including City of God by Paulo Lins, Budapest by Chico Buarque, and Near to the Wild Heart by Clarice Lispector.