The Five Seasons of Love

by João Almino, Elizabeth Jackson (Translator)

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sympathetic portrait of a woman whose life has not turned out as she anticipated, and whose once audacious dreams have been replaced by half-truths, failures, and frustration.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.

170 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've had this book on my shelf for about 10 years and finally getting around to reading it, deciding I needed a break from the heavier reading finds from the writers festival. This is a lovely meditation on a life. A short novella really of about 155 pages, the story is in 5 parts spanning the year 1999 into 2000. The story is a 55 year old woman, Ana Kauffman, recently retired, reflecting on her life and getting ready for a reunion of her university posse, who referred to themselves as the useless, a political comment that was really a reflection of the futility of trying to change the military dictatorship that ruled Brazil at their time in uni. It is a story of love, requited and unrequited and grief, of friends lost and opportunities missed. I posted this quote from chapter one earlier this week: "Once corrected the youthful error of thinking it was possible to change one another, I was convinced that love is, in fact, a brief insanity, and marriage a long folly". I'll leave you with this quote from chapter 5: "Wanting love is to live with the anxiety of not achieving it. But it can arrive...To the possibility of friendship and tenderness, friendship open to desire." Enjoy