Waldomiro Freitas Autran Dourado is a major Brazilian writer of the twentieth century. Among his thirteen novels, seven story collections, and critical essays are several masterpieces. During his forty-five-year career he has had consistent critical success and has received important literary prizes. Some of his novels have been translated into English and other languages, and a UNESCO panel chose Ópera dos mortos (1967; translated as The Voices of the Dead, 1980) as a representative universal work of literature. A conscientious practitioner of his art, Autran Dourado nevertheless considers himself an apprentice as he examines and builds his texts. He has studied the lessons of the masters he acknowledges: Gustave Flaubert, Henry James, Franz Kafka, William Faulkner, and Brazilian writer Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis. His combination of classical structure through pastiche and colloquial language makes for an admirable, fluid style. The author of more than twenty books, Dourado presents...