Twenty After Midnight
A Novel
-
- 8,99 €
Beschreibung des Verlags
A dark and masterful portrait of a generation in crisis, from one of the most exciting young voices in international literature
The world had been theirs in the late 90s: they were the young provocateurs behind a countercultural scene, digital bohemians creating a new future. But fifteen years later, Duke, the leader and undisputed genius of their group, has been murdered, and the three remaining members of their circle reunite to piece together what became of their lives and how they fell so short of their expectations.
Now in their thirties, Aurora, Antero, and Emiliano have succumbed to the pressures of adulthood, the exigencies of carving out a life in a country that is fraying at the seams. Reunited after years of long-held grudges and painful crushes, the three try to resurrect the spirit of the all-night parties and early morning trysts, the protests and pornography of their youths. Lurking over them, as they puzzle out their fates, is the question of whether or not there is a future for them to believe in, or if the end has already arrived.
Twenty After Midnight is a portrait of the first generation of the digital age, a group that was promised everything but handed a fractured world. Daniel Galera has written a pre-apocalyptic tale of millennial longings.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Brazilian writer Galera's thoughtful, bittersweet novel (after Blood-Drenched Beard) tackles the ephemeral nature of friendship. Emiliano, 39, struggles to pay the rent on his S o Paulo apartment and to finish his doctorate. He's lost touch with a group of friends from college, with whom he launched Orangutan, a webzine. The shocking murder of their friend Andrei "Duke" Dukelsky triggers a melancholy reunion for Emiliano and surviving "Orangutanuns" Aurora and Antero. Catching up begins at the funeral and continues at a bar, where Emiliano, Aurora, and Antero realize Duke, who was well-known for his novels, has made a greater impact than any of them. Emiliano, now a freelance writer, is outraged when an editor suggests he write a quick biography of Duke, to "ride the coattails of his death." Emiliano's memories of Duke are painfully tied to Duke's rejection of him, and Duke gained mileage in his literary career by making Emiliano a thinly disguised character in his fiction "at a time when sex between men was either invisible or merely hinted at in Brazilian literature and made the hippest of humanities students uncomfortable." The infectious, rueful narration shows Emiliano's uneasy attachment to his home city. Galera crafts a nuanced, complex portrait of millennial anxiety and anomie.
