Blood-Drenched Beard

From Brazil's most acclaimed young novelist, the mesmerizing story of how a troubled young man's restorative journey to the seaside becomes a violent struggle with his family's dark past.

The young man's father, dying, at last tells him the truth about his grandfather--or at least the truth as he knows it. The mean old gaucho was murdered by some fellow villagers in Garopaba, a town on the Atlantic now famous for its surfing and fishing. It was during a Sunday dance at a community hall. The lights went out suddenly and when they came up, his grandfather was lying in a pool of blood . . . or so the story goes.

It is as if his father has given him a deathbed challenge. So with no strong ties to his current life, the young man travels up the coast, finds an apartment by the water, and begins to make enquiries. But information doesn't come easily. A rare neurological condition means that the young man doesn't recognize the faces of people he's met. And the people who do know about his grandfather are fearful to give anything away.