Summary

dAlmeyda includes the stories of Barcala Aprigio, acquired and read years after they were written, during his passage from Brazil to Europe. She says that they were never printed but that that he had a translated piece favorably reviewed by a French literary critic. He delivered to Almeyda a box of his hand-written manuscripts, with a scribbled note that read: “The rarer ipecacuanha A freakish memory Mystical unity Man and the Universe” (545).

Barcala’s narratives include the following texts: “THE FAMILY OF MARTINA P.” ; “THE FLYING DUTCHMAN’S SLAVE” ; “THE WOMAN WHO WANTED THE RETURN OF HER LOVER” ; “PORT OF TRANSFER” ; “LICE SCRATCHING”

“THE FAMILY OF MARTINA P.” tells the tale of a woman of mixed ancestry, daughter of mulatto geologist and physician and a Bahian woman. A young Portuguese named Valdes falls in love with Martina, but he is...