The Five Seasons of Love

Book excerpt: Fiction. Latino/Latina Studies. Translated from the Portugese by Elizabeth Jackson. In THE FIVE SEASONS OF LOVE, acclaimed Brazilian writer Joao Almino presents a compelling and sympathetic portrait of a woman whose life has not turned out as she anticipated, and whose once audacious dreams have been replaced by half-truths, failures, and frustration. To fulfill a pact made during her student days, fifty-five-year-old Ana Kauffman plans a party to celebrate the new millennium. As old friends resurface and the countdown to the new century draws near, Ana's past undergoes a series of unexpected revisions--beginning with the arrival of Berta, the newly minted post-op persona of Ana's former boyfriend Norberto. Set amidst the chaos of contemporary Brasilia, a place where even the most basic human affairs--love, friendship, sex, and work--can take unlikely shapes, Ana's story is both relentlessly modern and profoundly timeless. Winner of the Casa de las Americas 2003 Literary Award, THE FIVE SEASONS OF LOVE is an extraordinary novel by a writer at the height of his powers.