Description
Book SynopsisWith truth impossible to disentangle from invention, Tobias Hecht followed the lead of Verissimo, his would-be informant, creating characters, rendering a tale that didn't happen but that might have, probing at what it means to translate a life into words. This book is a tribute to and reinterpretation of the Latin American testimonio genre.
Trade Review“
After Life is not only deeply moving, but written with profound integrity. It is saturated with compassion and in this lies its intense moral power.”—Anne Michaels, author of
Fugitive Pieces“A disturbingly powerful journey into the violence of everyday life and the inner world of literature. The enigmatic and courageous characters of
After Life jump off the page and change the ways we think about human agency today.”—João Biehl, author of
Vita: Life in a Zone of Social Abandonment“
After Life engages a startling mix of ethnography and fiction to illuminate both the world of Recife’s homeless and the peculiar ennui that often befalls the anthropologist during extended fieldwork. . . . Remarkable. . . .
After Life urges us to consider, more deeply than we have before, alternative modes of representation.” -- Robin E. Sheriff * Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology *
“A call and response of truth and invention, mental illness and yearning,
After Life is a tribute to and reinterpretation of the Latin American testimonio genre. Desire, melancholy, longing, regret, and the hunger to live beyond the confines of past and future meet in this debut novel by Tobias Hecht.” * Adolescence *
Table of ContentsIntroduction 1
Notes 12
Part 1 17
Part 2 77
Part 3 121
Acknowledgments 181
