The Love of Singular Men

The outer suburbs of Rio de Janeiro were the first things to come into this world, even before the volcanoes and the sperm whales, before Portugal invaded, before President Getulio Vargas ordered the construction of social housing Rio de Janeiro, the 1970s. Disabled by monoparesis, Camilo leads a sheltered, middle-class life, protected from the brutal realities of Brazil's military dictatorship and the cruelty of the world beyond his back garden. The day his father brings home Cosme, an orphan, marks the end of this safe and predictable childhood. Who is this boy? No one explains, and Cosme becomes a part of the family. Camilo instinctively hates him, but hate soon turns to love as the boys explore new pleasures. Told by the adult Camilo, living alone in his old neighborhood, haunted by his past, this is a coming-of-age story like no other. Combining an incisive exploration of Brazilian social issues with a tender account of first love, first grief and revenge, The Love of Singular Men sparkles with playful ingenuity and insight throughout.