Hailed in his lifetime as Brazil’s greatest writer, Machado de Assis has found a new generation of readers through a series of critically acclaimed translations by Margaret Jull Costa and Robin Patterson. Now, the duo returns to breathe new life into the irreverent, ambitious and darkly funny Quincas Borba. Originally published in 1891, the novel begins with the death of its titular character, a mad philosopher infamous for spouting pessimistic theories of Humanitism.

Borba leaves his fortune—including his dog, also named Quincas Borba—to Rubiao, his loyal caretaker. Adrift in the big, bad, bustling world of late-1860s Rio de Janeiro, it isn’t long before Rubiao is targeted by the city’s sycophants, who can smell his naiveté from a mile away. Playfully told by an omniscient—and possibly unreliable—narrator, and rife with Machado’s signature satirical jabs, Quincas Borba is another strikingly modern tale from a blazing progenitor of twentieth-century fiction.