The Double Death of Quincas Water-Bray

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A Penguin Classic

Widely considered the greatest work by the foremost Brazilian author of the twentieth century, The Double Death of Quincas Water-Bray comes to Penguin Classics in a new translation by the dean of Portuguese-language translators, Gregory Rabassa. It tells the story of Joaquim Soares da Cunha, who drops dead after he abandons his life of upstanding citizenship to assume the identity of Quincas Water-Bray, a “champion drunk” and bum who is whisked along on a postmortem journey that climaxes in his loss at sea.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.”Raucous . . . Rowdy . . . Outrageous!” —The New York Times

“Swift, funny, and occasionally even slapstick.” —Rivka Galchen, from the Introduction

“Part Virginia Woolf, part Weekend at Bernie’s . . . [An] excellent example of the particular mixture of folkloric elements and high-literary storytelling for which Amado is often paired with Gabriel García Márquez.” —The Wall Street Journal

“Hilarious… Deftly constructed… Hugely entertaining… Amado, like Quincas, is a hoaxer who loves to trick his readers….  [His] version of Brazil is seductive.” —The Times Literary Supplement

“[A] comic masterpiece . . . Darkly hilarious . . . With brilliant sleight of hand and deceptive simplicity, Amado’s defiance of death in this frothy, heartfelt tale reveals the Brazilian master at his earthy, big-hearted best.” —Shelf Awareness

 Jorge Amado (1912–2001) was born in the state of Bahia, Brazil, whose society he portrays in such acclaimed novels as Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon, and Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands.

Gregory Rabassa (translator; 1922–2016) was a National Book Award–winning translator whose English-language versions of works by Gabriel García Márquez, Mario Vargas Llosa, Julio Cortázar, and Jorge Amado have become classics in their own right.

Rivka Galchen (introduction) is one of The New Yorker’s “20 Under 40” fiction writers and the author of the novels Atmospheric Disturbances and Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch. A contributing editor at Harper’s Magazine, she lives in New York City.US

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