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The Shape of Bones
A man rises at 5 a.m. and leaves his home. He does not wake his wife or child to bid them goodbye. He starts his car - an SUV filled with survival gear - but does not drive to his friend's house as planned. Instead he glides through the sleeping streets of Porto Alegre, haunted by ghosts of himself: the fearless boy riding a battered stunt bike, the silent adolescent fascinated by bodies and violence, the obsessive young surgeon, the distant husband.
As the dawn comes on and people slowly fill the streets, the man drives unthinkingly, inexorably, toward the old neighbourhood of his youth. What is pulling him back there? Perhaps the need to make something happen, perhaps just nostalgia. Or perhaps the search for absolution - from a crime he has carried in his heart for fifteen years.
As the dawn comes on and people slowly fill the streets, the man drives unthinkingly, inexorably, toward the old neighbourhood of his youth. What is pulling him back there? Perhaps the need to make something happen, perhaps just nostalgia. Or perhaps the search for absolution - from a crime he has carried in his heart for fifteen years.
240 pages, Hardcover
First published April 11, 2006
27 people are currently reading
983 people want to read
About the author
Daniel Galera
32 books429 followersDaniel Galera is a Brazilian writer, translator and editor. He was born in São Paulo, but was raised and spent most of his life in Porto Alegre, until 2005 when he went back to São Paulo. He is considered by critics to be one of the most influential young authors in Brazilian literature. Daniel is one of the founders of the publishing house Livros do Mal and had some of his works adapted into plays and movies.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 83 reviews
May 24, 2017
Brazilian coming of age story that's characterizations and setting shine.
This is a fun ride, but don't spoil it by reading too many reviews because once you know where it's going the power is diminished.
Dual timeline of a boy and the man he becomes. We interlope on a childhood filled with the reckless endeavors and feats of worth that ensure blood, pain, and admiration. Hermano's viewpoint is extremely self-conscious, always judging himself by looking from the outside, an adolescent paralysis--can't act without prejudging the outcome. The reader feels the disembodiment.
We begin the journey with a wild and ill-advised bike ride through the neighborhood, Esplanada. It's a colorful journey with all the attributes that give it a distinct flavor: cachaça, reckless disregard for trespassing, black magic shrines, cultural observances, and the wildness of an unscripted youth. Life uncaged, with all the joys and dangers it entails. And I loved this because it reminded me of my childhood in the Caribbean. So, there is a definite sense of armchair traveler associated with the storytelling.
The flip side of the story is the wild and ill-advised climb up the unknown mountain. How does the man resemble his youth. How do confidants affect us, and how does our inner drive motivates us, makes us choose A or B? Do we change or merely repeat?
This went from reminiscent and idyllic, even in its broken parts, to ominous and foreboding. The tension ramped up, and suddenly, adrenaline was flowing. I'll be honest, the acceleration in the last third of the book is where the power lies. All that came before are the trickles leading to a raging river. You sense the potential for something big to happen, but you're not sure where or how.
This is 3.5 stars, but no half stars, so 3 here. I recommend this for those who enjoy reading transformative moments when childhood is abandoned and the mantle of adulthood taken.
~Copy provided by NetGalley~
This is a fun ride, but don't spoil it by reading too many reviews because once you know where it's going the power is diminished.
Dual timeline of a boy and the man he becomes. We interlope on a childhood filled with the reckless endeavors and feats of worth that ensure blood, pain, and admiration. Hermano's viewpoint is extremely self-conscious, always judging himself by looking from the outside, an adolescent paralysis--can't act without prejudging the outcome. The reader feels the disembodiment.
We begin the journey with a wild and ill-advised bike ride through the neighborhood, Esplanada. It's a colorful journey with all the attributes that give it a distinct flavor: cachaça, reckless disregard for trespassing, black magic shrines, cultural observances, and the wildness of an unscripted youth. Life uncaged, with all the joys and dangers it entails. And I loved this because it reminded me of my childhood in the Caribbean. So, there is a definite sense of armchair traveler associated with the storytelling.
The flip side of the story is the wild and ill-advised climb up the unknown mountain. How does the man resemble his youth. How do confidants affect us, and how does our inner drive motivates us, makes us choose A or B? Do we change or merely repeat?
This went from reminiscent and idyllic, even in its broken parts, to ominous and foreboding. The tension ramped up, and suddenly, adrenaline was flowing. I'll be honest, the acceleration in the last third of the book is where the power lies. All that came before are the trickles leading to a raging river. You sense the potential for something big to happen, but you're not sure where or how.
This is 3.5 stars, but no half stars, so 3 here. I recommend this for those who enjoy reading transformative moments when childhood is abandoned and the mantle of adulthood taken.
~Copy provided by NetGalley~
June 18, 2018
Um excelente livro. Daniel Galera urde com mestria uma trama delicada, alternando passado com presente de modo a narrar a história de culpa e remorsos de Hermano, o «Mãos de Cavalo», um jovem que cresceu num bairro de Porto Alegre. Uma obra violenta, introspetiva e de leitura compulsiva que nunca resvala no pedantismo (o único senão poderá ser a extraordinária coincidência que ocorre no regresso de Hermano ao antigo bairro mas, com os diabos, é ficção, já chega de ultra-análises). Sem dúvida um dos atuais autores de língua portuguesa a acompanhar.
August 30, 2017
Surely Brazilian novelist Daniel Galera is among the finest contemporary novelists today. I was mesmerized by his first novel, Blood-Drenched Beard, and couldn’t wait to read The Shape of Bones. I was not disappointed.
The story centers on a young married man who is preparing to climb the virgin mountain, Cerro Benete—one of the final mountains to be conquered—with his boastful best friend. We know the narrator only as Hermano—translated to “brother”—and as he drives to meet that friend, we catch glimpses of his childhood in Esplanada, where he was part of a gang of boys. Every other chapter is structured as a flashback.
Through these flashbacks, we learn that Hermono has considered his life to be “an endless rehearsal for a heroic moment that never arrived. A permanent limbo between innocence and heroism, inhabited by ghostly projections of himself, distorted by what he wished he had been or wanted to become.” Increasingly, he punishes his body, embracing more and more strident risks, learning to inure himself from the physical pain. But is that punishment a metaphor for inuring his mind and his essence as well?
As the risks and the punishment escalate, Hermano struggles with one particularly haunting moment when his striving for heroism and masculinity deserted him. Can he achieve redemption? This beautifully-written book, expertly translated from the Portuguese by Alison Entrekin, examines that moment when we strive to finally achieve a sense of grace.
The story centers on a young married man who is preparing to climb the virgin mountain, Cerro Benete—one of the final mountains to be conquered—with his boastful best friend. We know the narrator only as Hermano—translated to “brother”—and as he drives to meet that friend, we catch glimpses of his childhood in Esplanada, where he was part of a gang of boys. Every other chapter is structured as a flashback.
Through these flashbacks, we learn that Hermono has considered his life to be “an endless rehearsal for a heroic moment that never arrived. A permanent limbo between innocence and heroism, inhabited by ghostly projections of himself, distorted by what he wished he had been or wanted to become.” Increasingly, he punishes his body, embracing more and more strident risks, learning to inure himself from the physical pain. But is that punishment a metaphor for inuring his mind and his essence as well?
As the risks and the punishment escalate, Hermano struggles with one particularly haunting moment when his striving for heroism and masculinity deserted him. Can he achieve redemption? This beautifully-written book, expertly translated from the Portuguese by Alison Entrekin, examines that moment when we strive to finally achieve a sense of grace.
July 30, 2017
A 30 year old doctor starts out to pick up his friend to go on a rock climbing adventure and winds up changing his life, even though he neither meets his friend nor reaches the mountain. I'm actually assuming that Hermano's life will be changed by his trip down memory lane in his old neighborhood, because the ending of the book is annoyingly unresolved. It's entirely possible that he won't change anything and will continue to act like a thrill seeking adolescent to cover his feelings of inadequacy. Who knows? The parts of the book describing the 15 year old Hermano felt very real, although I couldn't really relate to his emphasis on physical and dangerous challenges. Maybe it's more of a male thing. I thought the book was well written and I would read more by this author. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.
April 18, 2008
Como romance de formação, falha em seu propósito burguês de mostrar o processo de instrução - ainda bem. Galera não tem uma tese e a própria narrativa entrecortada mostra isso e vai contra a primeira idéia de um romance de formação.
A escrita é vigorosa e a história, violenta. Isso falta nos escritores contemporâneos - e não os jornalistas - que tiveram seu auge nas décadas de 60 e 70 e nos jovens ainda sem personalidade. Daniel Galera é singular dentro de um contexto nacional e também de um local, pois, como gaúcho, sai de um regionalismo forte característico do Rio Grande do Sul.
Merece ser lido.
A escrita é vigorosa e a história, violenta. Isso falta nos escritores contemporâneos - e não os jornalistas - que tiveram seu auge nas décadas de 60 e 70 e nos jovens ainda sem personalidade. Daniel Galera é singular dentro de um contexto nacional e também de um local, pois, como gaúcho, sai de um regionalismo forte característico do Rio Grande do Sul.
Merece ser lido.
August 29, 2017
This is the second book by Daniel Galera to be translated into English, but it precedes Blood Soaked Beard, which was one of my favorite books three years ago. The writing in this is not assured as in that book, but that may be because of being written earlier, also it is not as well fleshed out. What both books share is a haunted protagonist.
Dr. Hermano Weissmann's daredevil past while growing up in Esplanada, Brazil, included cycling down streets and hills with ill advised speed and abandon. This seemingly recklessnes has followed him to adulthood where he seeks inaccessible peaks and challenges regardless of consequences. But during the course of this slim novel, he comes to face the demons of his youth.
The present is the framework, the bones, upon which hangs the events of the past, and those scenes set in boyhood and youth were by far the most vivid. It is possible to see the boy in the man he has become, but the boy was far more interesting.
Dr. Hermano Weissmann's daredevil past while growing up in Esplanada, Brazil, included cycling down streets and hills with ill advised speed and abandon. This seemingly recklessnes has followed him to adulthood where he seeks inaccessible peaks and challenges regardless of consequences. But during the course of this slim novel, he comes to face the demons of his youth.
The present is the framework, the bones, upon which hangs the events of the past, and those scenes set in boyhood and youth were by far the most vivid. It is possible to see the boy in the man he has become, but the boy was far more interesting.
February 4, 2017
'That bad blood there, it's good that it's coming out. You've got to let it out, because then you body will make more of the good blood, the clean sort that runs through the inside, to replace the bad blood, understand?'
This is a book that could put South American literature back on the map.
Brazilian author Daniel Galera writes some terrific scenes in this short yet haunting novel about a man trying to make sense of who he is and deal with the regrets of his past.
While being a relatively short read at 192 pages, there are many beautiful and evocative passages that make this an almost visceral experience of growing up in Brazil.
The opening chapter alone almost has a short story quality to it as we read an exciting account of 'the urban cyclist.' It is here that we are introduced to the novel's man character, Hermano.
The opening scene is just one of many memorable scenes that Galera writes to recount Hermano's childhood and subsequent teenage years. Whether he is describing an afternoon soccer game, a kamikaze downhill bicycle ride or a teenage get together, you can almost smell the hormones coming right off the page.
Hermano is a boy with many friends and acquaintances, but still lives somewhere on the outside of the group. While being more than capable of surviving the rough and tumble of life on the streets of his local neighbourhood, he still avoids physical confrontation of any kind. This is at odds with his unusual tendency to injury himself remarkably when riding his bike. His refusal to engage in fistfights and brawls seems smart until the day one of his friend's needs help.
'The weather had been dry and the beaten earth of the soccer field filled the air with a brown dust that hung there, apparently static, for minutes on end, refusing to accept the natural order of things and fall back to the ground.'
In between these childhood recollections, we meet a very grown up Hermano who is rising early to collect his friend Renan. As he prepares to embark on a mountaineering trip to Cerre Bonete in Bolivia, his thoughts constantly return to his childhood days when he witnessed a horrendous crime. Inexplicably, he alters his early morning destination and begins to drive around his old neighbourhood, thus taking a trip down memory lane to ponder upon what might have been.
Within this contemplation, Hermano wonders how his earlier life has affected his life in the present day. He's not even sure that he likes Renan or mountaineering yet he still leaves his disgruntled wife Adri to embark on the expedition. Hermano is missing something from his life and only by looking back and facing the fears of his past can he find the missing piece.
By the end of this novel, I too was left contemplating the decisions that I have made in my own past and wondering how these thoughts or regrets affect me in the present day. This book really makes you question what would be done differently when given a second chance.
Would I recommend this book to a friend?
Yes. Yet another example of a relatively short read from another part of the world that will give you a different perspective on life. These type of reads are fast becoming my favourite genre and offer a great opportunity for any reader to become a literary world traveller. Broaden your horizons and take a trip to sunny Brazil with this book!
This is a book that could put South American literature back on the map.
Brazilian author Daniel Galera writes some terrific scenes in this short yet haunting novel about a man trying to make sense of who he is and deal with the regrets of his past.
While being a relatively short read at 192 pages, there are many beautiful and evocative passages that make this an almost visceral experience of growing up in Brazil.
The opening chapter alone almost has a short story quality to it as we read an exciting account of 'the urban cyclist.' It is here that we are introduced to the novel's man character, Hermano.
The opening scene is just one of many memorable scenes that Galera writes to recount Hermano's childhood and subsequent teenage years. Whether he is describing an afternoon soccer game, a kamikaze downhill bicycle ride or a teenage get together, you can almost smell the hormones coming right off the page.
Hermano is a boy with many friends and acquaintances, but still lives somewhere on the outside of the group. While being more than capable of surviving the rough and tumble of life on the streets of his local neighbourhood, he still avoids physical confrontation of any kind. This is at odds with his unusual tendency to injury himself remarkably when riding his bike. His refusal to engage in fistfights and brawls seems smart until the day one of his friend's needs help.
'The weather had been dry and the beaten earth of the soccer field filled the air with a brown dust that hung there, apparently static, for minutes on end, refusing to accept the natural order of things and fall back to the ground.'
In between these childhood recollections, we meet a very grown up Hermano who is rising early to collect his friend Renan. As he prepares to embark on a mountaineering trip to Cerre Bonete in Bolivia, his thoughts constantly return to his childhood days when he witnessed a horrendous crime. Inexplicably, he alters his early morning destination and begins to drive around his old neighbourhood, thus taking a trip down memory lane to ponder upon what might have been.
Within this contemplation, Hermano wonders how his earlier life has affected his life in the present day. He's not even sure that he likes Renan or mountaineering yet he still leaves his disgruntled wife Adri to embark on the expedition. Hermano is missing something from his life and only by looking back and facing the fears of his past can he find the missing piece.
By the end of this novel, I too was left contemplating the decisions that I have made in my own past and wondering how these thoughts or regrets affect me in the present day. This book really makes you question what would be done differently when given a second chance.
Would I recommend this book to a friend?
Yes. Yet another example of a relatively short read from another part of the world that will give you a different perspective on life. These type of reads are fast becoming my favourite genre and offer a great opportunity for any reader to become a literary world traveller. Broaden your horizons and take a trip to sunny Brazil with this book!
September 13, 2017
I picked this book up on a whim when I saw it at the library. Yes, I pick up books and judge them by their covers. The cover pictures a broken bicycle and the title "The Shape of Bones" grabbed me like velcro.
The story is a coming of age story told in dual perspectives from the main character as his 30 year old self reconciling his 15 year old self. I loved the two perspectives and how they came together.
Rating this book is difficult as it contains the ALL TIME BEST first chapter in the history of books. That said, I am slightly biased as the first chapter is excellently written by someone who obviously loves riding a bike. I would love to get permission to have it reprinted as a short story and give it out as gifts to all the cyclists I know.
So, starting with a 5 star first chapter, I would subtract stars for a lengthy dream chapter - I hate dream chapters in all books. I would also subtract for foreshadowing an event a tad to early. Additionally, I would have liked to have seen at least one more chapter to help resolve the ending in my mind. Only time will tell, but this book may stay with me for a long time and may be re-rated to a 5 star book. I know I will re-read that first chapter again.
The story is a coming of age story told in dual perspectives from the main character as his 30 year old self reconciling his 15 year old self. I loved the two perspectives and how they came together.
Rating this book is difficult as it contains the ALL TIME BEST first chapter in the history of books. That said, I am slightly biased as the first chapter is excellently written by someone who obviously loves riding a bike. I would love to get permission to have it reprinted as a short story and give it out as gifts to all the cyclists I know.
So, starting with a 5 star first chapter, I would subtract stars for a lengthy dream chapter - I hate dream chapters in all books. I would also subtract for foreshadowing an event a tad to early. Additionally, I would have liked to have seen at least one more chapter to help resolve the ending in my mind. Only time will tell, but this book may stay with me for a long time and may be re-rated to a 5 star book. I know I will re-read that first chapter again.
October 16, 2017
This story of a bunch of 15 year old boys growing up in Puerto Alegre has similarities to Lord of the Flies. Though the life the boys live is to them quite normal, it is their burgeoning adolescence, accumulating testosterone or the pressures of society and their peers that make them behave in an increasingly disturbing way. Their attitude towards females in the group seems without concern or sensitivity.
The action is based around one of the boys, Hermano, who in the opening chapter takes a bad fall from his bike when a young boy. He seems to relish his injuries. The storyline then jumps to him as a man, off to attempt an unclimbed Bolivian mountain. He is haunted by the past. Told in alternating chapters of him as a teenager and a successful adult (a surgeon indeed), Galera's novel asks many questions, of regrets from earlier life, choices made and what if we had a second chance. He describes the boys so well at that key time in their lives, brutal and yet caring. This is a really interesting and very different sort if book, and certainly recommended.
The action is based around one of the boys, Hermano, who in the opening chapter takes a bad fall from his bike when a young boy. He seems to relish his injuries. The storyline then jumps to him as a man, off to attempt an unclimbed Bolivian mountain. He is haunted by the past. Told in alternating chapters of him as a teenager and a successful adult (a surgeon indeed), Galera's novel asks many questions, of regrets from earlier life, choices made and what if we had a second chance. He describes the boys so well at that key time in their lives, brutal and yet caring. This is a really interesting and very different sort if book, and certainly recommended.
August 15, 2017
From talented Brazilian writer, Daniel Galera, and newly translated into English comes, The Shape of Bones. It’s the story of one man’s struggle to come to terms with his own personal demon. To the outside world, Hermano Weissmann has it made. He is a very successful plastic surgeon, married with one child whom he adores. Below the surface though, he is a tormented man. With richly drawn characters and elegant prose, the story alternates between his fifteen year old self and his thirty year old self, with the majority of the story taking place in his past. At first I thought the protagonist was a masochist, he had such little regard for his own safety, but the truth comes out in the end. it’s a brutal, intense observation of a tortured man’s psyche. This slim volume is an excellent read.
October 7, 2020
I enjoy Daniel Galera' writing, but I have to say I had difficulty engaging in the narrative and with the characters. These days I have found myself to have less and less patience with these male characters that don't see further than their own nose and that can only have superficial relationships with women - and to authors that don't make an effort to describe women in an multidimensional manner. I've seen this before and I don't have time for it.
April 28, 2017
the second novel to be appear in english from author and publisher daniel galera (one of granta's best young brazilian novelists), the shape of bones (mãos de cavalo) was initially released while he was still in his mid-twenties. the tale of hermano, a 30-year old plastic surgeon (or aesthetic medicine specialist), is a thoughtful work of self-reflection and contending with both the past and the present.
set over the course of two hours (with alternating chapters flashing back to youthful moments of consequence), the shape of bones finds its protagonist taking stock of his life, reckoning with himself and the long-gone days of yesteryear from which he's never fully escaped. regret, worry, disappointment, failure, shame, anxiety, and guilt haunt hermano, who seeks to make up for a humiliating legacy of personal cowardice when confronted with an incident not dissimilar from the defining one that's colored his life since he was a teen.
galera's often pensive story is well-told and by limiting the reader's view to but a few glimpses of his main character's life, he lends hermano a universality and emotional range that will likely resonate widely. the shape of bones, with its propulsive plot and meditative milieu, offers a fictional foray into the enduring consequences of action and inaction alike.
*translated from the portuguese by alison entrekin (galera's blood-drenched beard, lispector, paulo lins, et al.)
**is there another book (in any language) that has employed nicolas cage's words for an epigraph??!
set over the course of two hours (with alternating chapters flashing back to youthful moments of consequence), the shape of bones finds its protagonist taking stock of his life, reckoning with himself and the long-gone days of yesteryear from which he's never fully escaped. regret, worry, disappointment, failure, shame, anxiety, and guilt haunt hermano, who seeks to make up for a humiliating legacy of personal cowardice when confronted with an incident not dissimilar from the defining one that's colored his life since he was a teen.
galera's often pensive story is well-told and by limiting the reader's view to but a few glimpses of his main character's life, he lends hermano a universality and emotional range that will likely resonate widely. the shape of bones, with its propulsive plot and meditative milieu, offers a fictional foray into the enduring consequences of action and inaction alike.
at thirty, life felt like an endless rehearsal for a heroic moment that never arrived. a permanent limbo between innocence and heroism, inhabited by ghostly projections of himself, distorted by what he wished he had been or wanted to become.
*translated from the portuguese by alison entrekin (galera's blood-drenched beard, lispector, paulo lins, et al.)
**is there another book (in any language) that has employed nicolas cage's words for an epigraph??!
August 9, 2017
It's hard to decide what to say about this novel because I wasn't sure where it was going, but I was interested enough to keep reading. This novel is divided into the past (marked by chapter titles) and the present (marked by time).
Hermano is a great character because he rides the line of likability and dislike for me, which I feel makes him more realistic. He's self-involved and introspective, yet he honestly cares about his family. He's cowardly, yet regrets it. In his story he has one big regret and I don't think he's alone in wanting to go back and make it right, in almost waiting for an opportunity to replay the situation and make the right choices this time around.
Considering it wasn't until the end of the novel that it became obvious what the story was truly about I would have preferred a more concrete ending as to what Hermano decides to do with his life. It felt too open.
I received a review copy.
Hermano is a great character because he rides the line of likability and dislike for me, which I feel makes him more realistic. He's self-involved and introspective, yet he honestly cares about his family. He's cowardly, yet regrets it. In his story he has one big regret and I don't think he's alone in wanting to go back and make it right, in almost waiting for an opportunity to replay the situation and make the right choices this time around.
Considering it wasn't until the end of the novel that it became obvious what the story was truly about I would have preferred a more concrete ending as to what Hermano decides to do with his life. It felt too open.
I received a review copy.
February 28, 2021
«Lo que más le impresionaba, incluso más que la muerte, era querer amar a una persona con toda la fuerza y no ser capaz, porque no se trata de una elección».
-Pág. 185 de 'Manos de Caballo' de Daniel Galera. ¡Qué novelón!
Alguien debería reeditarla. Salió en Interzona de Argentina el 2004. Galera pertenece al grupo de autores como Maximiliano Barrientos y Rodrigo Hasbún que narran como pocos la violencia de la juventud y sus efectos en la adultez. La valentía, la amistad y el heroísmo como elementos vitales para forjar la personalidad en ambientes decadentes y de rechazo.
Qué destreza para narrar lo corpóreo y las heridas físicas. Vamos con otra novela de inmediato.
-Pág. 185 de 'Manos de Caballo' de Daniel Galera. ¡Qué novelón!
Alguien debería reeditarla. Salió en Interzona de Argentina el 2004. Galera pertenece al grupo de autores como Maximiliano Barrientos y Rodrigo Hasbún que narran como pocos la violencia de la juventud y sus efectos en la adultez. La valentía, la amistad y el heroísmo como elementos vitales para forjar la personalidad en ambientes decadentes y de rechazo.
Qué destreza para narrar lo corpóreo y las heridas físicas. Vamos con otra novela de inmediato.
July 26, 2017
Dentre os livros que já li do autor, este é de longe o meu favorito.
July 16, 2022
Um personagem intrigante e uma história muito bem construída. Não vai te prender no começo, vai te deixar confuso... Mas a complexidade do personagem principal vai invadir sua mente. Uma bela obra.
September 23, 2023
My 37th book in the Read Around the World challenge: Brazil 🇧🇷
October 17, 2018
3* para a primeira metade do livro
5* para a segunda metade
Uma escrita limpa, com o melhor que isso tem.
5* para a segunda metade
Uma escrita limpa, com o melhor que isso tem.
April 16, 2023
Our main character is a young Brazilian man, a doctor with a wife and kid. He is haunted by an incident of cowardice from his youth that resulted in a tragedy.
Apparently, to make up for that cowardice, he has become a daredevil. The opening story in the book is about his upcoming attempt to climb an un-climbed face of a mountain in Brazil. He’s still basically an amateur mountain climber but a good friend, an expert climber, has talked him into it.
There’s a lot of violence in this book. Boys get jumped by bullies and beaten up so badly they are hospitalized. Fights break out among the teen-aged boys at a girl’s birthday party. Hospitals again.
As a kid, he was a daredevil bicyclist. A bunch of guys are out on their bikes on the weekend showing off to the girls their skills at going down a steep hillside and crashing. Our guy is going to go down the steep cement stairs at top speed. Flashing red light again. It’s like he wants to punish himself by getting hurt.
Of all the books I’ve read, this one gives the most detail about the experience of physical exertion upon a body and the intense mental exertion that accompanies that effort. I don’t know how it compares to other books of that genre (if it is a genre) because I don’t read those.
We learn a bit about the life of boys growing up in suburban Brazil at that time. (The book was published in Portuguese in 2006.) There are a lot of references to American movies. The boys spend a lot of time on computer games and use those as a way to interact with each other without talking about anything significant. There’s a lot of local color of suburban Porto Alegre, one of the southernmost big cities in Brazil.
The author (b. 1979) has written six novels, all translated into English. Not all these translations show on Goodreads. From GR ratings, it looks like Twenty After Midnight is his best-known book to English readers.
Top photo of Pico 31 de Marco in Brazil, about 10,000 feet, on the border with Venezuela. Photo from traveltriangle.com
Photo of the author from kirkusreviews.com
Apparently, to make up for that cowardice, he has become a daredevil. The opening story in the book is about his upcoming attempt to climb an un-climbed face of a mountain in Brazil. He’s still basically an amateur mountain climber but a good friend, an expert climber, has talked him into it.
There’s a lot of violence in this book. Boys get jumped by bullies and beaten up so badly they are hospitalized. Fights break out among the teen-aged boys at a girl’s birthday party. Hospitals again.
As a kid, he was a daredevil bicyclist. A bunch of guys are out on their bikes on the weekend showing off to the girls their skills at going down a steep hillside and crashing. Our guy is going to go down the steep cement stairs at top speed. Flashing red light again. It’s like he wants to punish himself by getting hurt.
Of all the books I’ve read, this one gives the most detail about the experience of physical exertion upon a body and the intense mental exertion that accompanies that effort. I don’t know how it compares to other books of that genre (if it is a genre) because I don’t read those.
We learn a bit about the life of boys growing up in suburban Brazil at that time. (The book was published in Portuguese in 2006.) There are a lot of references to American movies. The boys spend a lot of time on computer games and use those as a way to interact with each other without talking about anything significant. There’s a lot of local color of suburban Porto Alegre, one of the southernmost big cities in Brazil.
The author (b. 1979) has written six novels, all translated into English. Not all these translations show on Goodreads. From GR ratings, it looks like Twenty After Midnight is his best-known book to English readers.
Top photo of Pico 31 de Marco in Brazil, about 10,000 feet, on the border with Venezuela. Photo from traveltriangle.com
Photo of the author from kirkusreviews.com
January 6, 2018
The Shape of Bones is a physical novel. Galera drives us around the characters by showing us what happens to their bodies, how they relate to them: how they, in the end, are them.
The descriptions are not boring or extremely detailed but rather fluid and palpable. This form of writing dispassionately but intimately and quick at the same time makes the narrative dynamic and strong. I would say Galera’s language is tailor-made to talk about violence, as in a way it is itself violent.
And my we get violence here. In all sizes. Solely physical, sought after, unfair, retaliatory, relieving, wholesome. How the author creates a tense atmosphere through a language in which violence just suits the mood instead of disrupting it is rather remarkable.
There would be many ways to scrutinise the plot’s possible interpretations (trauma, passing of age, social critique, etc). However, I believe Galera comes up with a fine product that shouldn’t be dissected in that way. He is showing as someone and something singular, both a life and a reflection on that life, come as it may. This object is interesting and also shocking, for the overtly mentioned violence and for the psychological devices triggered and structured by it, but also because of its singularity (we do get to peer into someone, the protagonist is well defined and complex). In any case, it is not the object which defines this book as a good one for me, but rather its very finely woven harmony with the telling of it: every trait, happening and place finds a correlative echo in the language.
I don’t give it five stars because it lacks the surprising (and therefore non categorisable) features that make for a masterpiece (ie. some sort of unexpected originality, an extremely special character, language experimentation, format playing, rare beauty, for example). It does, by all means, reach my personal “very good novel” label.
The descriptions are not boring or extremely detailed but rather fluid and palpable. This form of writing dispassionately but intimately and quick at the same time makes the narrative dynamic and strong. I would say Galera’s language is tailor-made to talk about violence, as in a way it is itself violent.
And my we get violence here. In all sizes. Solely physical, sought after, unfair, retaliatory, relieving, wholesome. How the author creates a tense atmosphere through a language in which violence just suits the mood instead of disrupting it is rather remarkable.
There would be many ways to scrutinise the plot’s possible interpretations (trauma, passing of age, social critique, etc). However, I believe Galera comes up with a fine product that shouldn’t be dissected in that way. He is showing as someone and something singular, both a life and a reflection on that life, come as it may. This object is interesting and also shocking, for the overtly mentioned violence and for the psychological devices triggered and structured by it, but also because of its singularity (we do get to peer into someone, the protagonist is well defined and complex). In any case, it is not the object which defines this book as a good one for me, but rather its very finely woven harmony with the telling of it: every trait, happening and place finds a correlative echo in the language.
I don’t give it five stars because it lacks the surprising (and therefore non categorisable) features that make for a masterpiece (ie. some sort of unexpected originality, an extremely special character, language experimentation, format playing, rare beauty, for example). It does, by all means, reach my personal “very good novel” label.
October 16, 2017
When Hermano was very young, say ten years old, he would ride his bicycle as fast as he could through the dangerous hilly streets of Esplanada, his Brazilian hometown. Once, after what had become a fairly typical occurrence: a painful and bloody wipe out on an unyielding macadam surface, Hermano wipes away the tears to spy an old abuela tottering his way. "That blood there, you know, that's bad blood," she explains after assessing his wounded knee. "You know there's good blood and bad blood don't you? Bad blood is that dark blood coming out there, it's dirty blood. It runs just under the surface... Good blood is different, it's lighter in color, almost pink, and it runs through the big veins... That bad blood there... (Y)ou've got to let it out, because then your body will make more of the good blood, the clean sort that runs through the inside, to replace the bad blood, understand?"
Grandma's advice to young Hermano, as contrived as it sounds, turns out to be the central theme (both in a literal and a figurative sense) of Daniel Galera's latest novel, The Shape of Bones. As Hermano reaches adolescence, his quest to rid himself of that bad blood intensifies. The streets and football pitches of Esplanada are a proving ground for him and his crew. One day while playing a pickup game of soccer, Hermano decides to stand up to the stocky, brutish kid they call Bonobo and in so doing provokes a mini rivalry which will lead to a calamitous series of events. Such experiences formulate our adult perspectives.
Skip ahead some years: Hermano, married now with a child, is leaving early one morning to meet up with a work aquaintance. They intend to scale the rock face of a Bolivian peak called Cerro Bonete. Galera alternates chapters between the adolescent and the grown up, showing us cause and effect. Whereas, Hermano tears around on his BMX competing with his fellow daredevils in a dangerous game to see who can cycle the fastest down a particularly treacherous hill, the adult Hermano still seems to have something to prove, only more so to himself this time. He is still trying to rid himself of that bad blood.
Galera's writing is perspicacious enough and Entrekin's translation is seamless, however I needed a bit more on why the young Hermano acts as he does. No one is a masochist for no reason. For this reason the book felt somewhat artificial. If only the author had probed to the heart of the matter, the well written and poignant ending would have packed more of a wallop. If we only knew why that advice from the old woman in his youth should have been so important to Hermano; why does he feel the need to clear out the bad blood to feel clean again? What was the germ than began his extreme life of recklessness? What makes him feel good about suffering? Galera could have hinted at why, but on the other hand it could be that in the barrios of Brazil these facts don't bear repeating. Maybe all that matters is the resolution.
~3.5 stars
Grandma's advice to young Hermano, as contrived as it sounds, turns out to be the central theme (both in a literal and a figurative sense) of Daniel Galera's latest novel, The Shape of Bones. As Hermano reaches adolescence, his quest to rid himself of that bad blood intensifies. The streets and football pitches of Esplanada are a proving ground for him and his crew. One day while playing a pickup game of soccer, Hermano decides to stand up to the stocky, brutish kid they call Bonobo and in so doing provokes a mini rivalry which will lead to a calamitous series of events. Such experiences formulate our adult perspectives.
Skip ahead some years: Hermano, married now with a child, is leaving early one morning to meet up with a work aquaintance. They intend to scale the rock face of a Bolivian peak called Cerro Bonete. Galera alternates chapters between the adolescent and the grown up, showing us cause and effect. Whereas, Hermano tears around on his BMX competing with his fellow daredevils in a dangerous game to see who can cycle the fastest down a particularly treacherous hill, the adult Hermano still seems to have something to prove, only more so to himself this time. He is still trying to rid himself of that bad blood.
Galera's writing is perspicacious enough and Entrekin's translation is seamless, however I needed a bit more on why the young Hermano acts as he does. No one is a masochist for no reason. For this reason the book felt somewhat artificial. If only the author had probed to the heart of the matter, the well written and poignant ending would have packed more of a wallop. If we only knew why that advice from the old woman in his youth should have been so important to Hermano; why does he feel the need to clear out the bad blood to feel clean again? What was the germ than began his extreme life of recklessness? What makes him feel good about suffering? Galera could have hinted at why, but on the other hand it could be that in the barrios of Brazil these facts don't bear repeating. Maybe all that matters is the resolution.
~3.5 stars
June 17, 2024
Eu não tinha lido a sinopse desse livro. Tudo o que sabia a respeito dele é que era do mesmo autor de "Barba ensopada de sangue", livro premiado e que teve um hype anos atrás. Como eu não havia lido nem o romance mais famoso, não sabia o que esperar de "Mãos de cavalo". Ele revelou-se uma ótima surpresa.
Estruturado em capítulos que alternam passado e presente, o livro conta a história de Hermano, apelidado, ainda na infância, Mãos de Cavalo por tê-las maiores que a média.
O que achei mais interessante nessa narrativa foi o fato de Galera tê-la centrado na relação do protagonista com o corpo. Essa ótica perpassa a história desde o primeiro capítulo - que narra com detalhes um passeio de bicicleta de Hermano na infância - até sua escolha profissional e suas relações do início da vida adulta à idade atual de 30 anos.
As descrições do autor são minuciosas mas nunca maçantes, por isso enriquecem a experiência de leitura ao nos aproximar do personagem principal e nos fazer intuir as sensações dele sem de fato vivê-las.
Há ainda uma tensão que permeia a vida de Hermano e cresce a cada capítulo. Próximo ao final acontece uma revelação que coloca a trajetória do protagonista numa nova perspectiva.
Para arrematar, o final é brusco e deixa em aberto grandes questões de Mãos de Cavalo, permitindo que nós, leitores, imaginemos possibilidades de futuro (e de passados alternativos) para Hermano e para nós mesmos, caso fôssemos confrontados com situações similares.
"Mãos de cavalo" é um romance incrivelmente bem escrito e instigante.
Estruturado em capítulos que alternam passado e presente, o livro conta a história de Hermano, apelidado, ainda na infância, Mãos de Cavalo por tê-las maiores que a média.
O que achei mais interessante nessa narrativa foi o fato de Galera tê-la centrado na relação do protagonista com o corpo. Essa ótica perpassa a história desde o primeiro capítulo - que narra com detalhes um passeio de bicicleta de Hermano na infância - até sua escolha profissional e suas relações do início da vida adulta à idade atual de 30 anos.
As descrições do autor são minuciosas mas nunca maçantes, por isso enriquecem a experiência de leitura ao nos aproximar do personagem principal e nos fazer intuir as sensações dele sem de fato vivê-las.
Há ainda uma tensão que permeia a vida de Hermano e cresce a cada capítulo. Próximo ao final acontece uma revelação que coloca a trajetória do protagonista numa nova perspectiva.
Para arrematar, o final é brusco e deixa em aberto grandes questões de Mãos de Cavalo, permitindo que nós, leitores, imaginemos possibilidades de futuro (e de passados alternativos) para Hermano e para nós mesmos, caso fôssemos confrontados com situações similares.
"Mãos de cavalo" é um romance incrivelmente bem escrito e instigante.
July 31, 2017
The Shape of Bones is kind of hard to describe for me. Essentially it follows two stories set in two different time periods, one about a young plastic surgeon leaving to climb a mountain with his friend Renan, the other set in the past, maybe, about a group of teenagers, of whom the plastic surgeon was apparently one (never explicitly stated), though other than a few characters, no one gets any real names, only nicknames.
I can't really tell a whole lot about the plot without giving something very important away, but the events in the two timelines run rather parallel. It's really hard to do this book justice because I was never sure where this book was going until it got there. It was a bit like being in the center of a tornado or hurricane, with events spiraling around you.
Is it a coming of age story? Yes, I think so, but the coming of age mostly happens to the adult main character, not the group of teenagers in the past. It was a really interesting read and I hope more of this author's books are translated into English. I've seen this book compared to Junot Diaz's "Oscar Wao" book, but where that was more like a punch to the face, The Shape of Bones is like spinning around a whirlpool, then getting sucked under. It has a very languid and lyrical feel; the tones are completely different and I don't feel it does either justice to compare them to one another. Both are good, but for very different reasons.
I read this book through Penguin's First to Read program.
I can't really tell a whole lot about the plot without giving something very important away, but the events in the two timelines run rather parallel. It's really hard to do this book justice because I was never sure where this book was going until it got there. It was a bit like being in the center of a tornado or hurricane, with events spiraling around you.
Is it a coming of age story? Yes, I think so, but the coming of age mostly happens to the adult main character, not the group of teenagers in the past. It was a really interesting read and I hope more of this author's books are translated into English. I've seen this book compared to Junot Diaz's "Oscar Wao" book, but where that was more like a punch to the face, The Shape of Bones is like spinning around a whirlpool, then getting sucked under. It has a very languid and lyrical feel; the tones are completely different and I don't feel it does either justice to compare them to one another. Both are good, but for very different reasons.
I read this book through Penguin's First to Read program.
May 17, 2018
This is a story of a man who is facing up to his formative past after running from it for a long time. It's a good story and well told, and I love it for that. There are a lot of stray strands in the story, bits of things here and there that seem awfully important to not be woven into the larger pattern, but this is the second Galera book I've read and that seems to be something he likes to do. The man who leaves his home early in the morning for an expedition quite different from the one he actually takes is not fully formed and not entirely thinking clearly. He left his childhood home only a few years before to be well off, married with a child, and he lives a life very different from any that seemed accessible in his childhood. I think many will put this in the coming-of-age genre, but it's an uncomfortable fit -- it's not clear how much maturing he has done, whether he did it then or is doing it now, or undoing it now. It's more a case of his past jumping up and grabbing ahold of him in this moment, and we share that peculiar morning with him. But again, it's well written and good for discussion and I'd read more of the author's work even if I come out a little puzzled.
I got a copy to review from First to Read.
I got a copy to review from First to Read.
August 26, 2017
I'm gonna be honest, I almost put this book down within the first chapter as DNF, and that is rare for me... but I'm glad I stuck with it, the only reason I did was probably the short length.
This is a coming of age story that bounces between the now and the then and doesn't try to be anything it is not.
It is gritty. Not just the story, but the writing too. That's the best word I can think of to describe it.
I was reading an ARC of the English translation and honestly the thing that stood out the most, the most distracting thing, was the lack of paragraphs. Sometimes whole pages went on without a break of any kind or paragraph which was extremely distracting and hard to read. I found myself losing my place as my eyes crossed, or skipping ahead.
I did like Hermano, the protagonist. I do like a graphic, haunting story full of flashbacks that keep me guessing... I guess the writing, or really more the format of the writing, just lost me a bit on this one.
I'm glad I read it, but I'm not sure I could have kept it up for a longer book.
This is a coming of age story that bounces between the now and the then and doesn't try to be anything it is not.
It is gritty. Not just the story, but the writing too. That's the best word I can think of to describe it.
I was reading an ARC of the English translation and honestly the thing that stood out the most, the most distracting thing, was the lack of paragraphs. Sometimes whole pages went on without a break of any kind or paragraph which was extremely distracting and hard to read. I found myself losing my place as my eyes crossed, or skipping ahead.
I did like Hermano, the protagonist. I do like a graphic, haunting story full of flashbacks that keep me guessing... I guess the writing, or really more the format of the writing, just lost me a bit on this one.
I'm glad I read it, but I'm not sure I could have kept it up for a longer book.
August 9, 2023
É um livro interessante. Um dos pontos fortes é a galeria de amigos, ainda que não se fique sabendo muita coisa sobre a maioria deles, além dos seus apelidos e algumas características físicas. Ainda assim, reconheci muitas situações vividas por eles por também ter sido um adolescente porto-alegrense do início dos anos 90.
Entre o passado e o presente na narrativa, foram as memorias da adolescência de Hermano que mais gostei. O presente apresenta um Hermano frio, quase seco por dentro. O que aconteceu no passado pode até ser uma boa explicação para esse seu jeito de ser, mas ficou difícil simpatizar com quem ele se transformou. Na verdade, já existia um pouco dessa frieza e egocentrismo no adolescente, só que as lembranças entre amigos atenuam isso.
O ponto fraco do livro é como o conflito interno de Hermano se resolveu. Muita coincidência. Será que uma visita ao bairro, a conversa com Naiara ou com outra pessoa daquela época, e uma reflexão de que nós, humanos, somos falíveis, não teria sido uma solução mais plausível?
Entre o passado e o presente na narrativa, foram as memorias da adolescência de Hermano que mais gostei. O presente apresenta um Hermano frio, quase seco por dentro. O que aconteceu no passado pode até ser uma boa explicação para esse seu jeito de ser, mas ficou difícil simpatizar com quem ele se transformou. Na verdade, já existia um pouco dessa frieza e egocentrismo no adolescente, só que as lembranças entre amigos atenuam isso.
O ponto fraco do livro é como o conflito interno de Hermano se resolveu. Muita coincidência. Será que uma visita ao bairro, a conversa com Naiara ou com outra pessoa daquela época, e uma reflexão de que nós, humanos, somos falíveis, não teria sido uma solução mais plausível?
May 14, 2017
A young man sets off one morning to meet up with a friend to go climbing. On the way he makes a detour to the town where he grew up. But this is not some sort of nostalgic trip, as it becomes increasingly clear that something happened all those years ago that haunts him still, something that he feels guilty for. This is the second book I have read by acclaimed Brazilian author Daniel Galera and I found it just as disturbing and intriguing. Nothing is spelt out for the reader but much is implied and the reader has to work hard to understand what has happened and what is happening. It's an atmospheric and evocative book, with a growing sense of menace that I found quite compelling and it’s a novel that haunts the reader just as the protagonist’s past haunts him. An unusual and absorbing read.
August 8, 2017
Received free from Penguin First to Read, my thoughts are my own.
This story is disjointed, skipping from seemingly unrelated people--a young cyclist, then a teen in a poor neighborhood, then an adult man in a difficult marriage. It isn't until halfway through that it's clear that these three people are, in fact, one person. And it's only then that something begins to happen--when he makes a decision not to follow his plans and head to his old neighborhood. This, from the blurb, I gather, is when things actually begin to happen--somewhere past page 127 of 234. They'll have to happen without me, though, because that is far too long to flounder in weird dreams, fantasies, and fragmented moments of a life.
The story is dreamlike and violent, weirdly disconnected, and not terribly interesting to read. If it has a message, it isn't for me, because I found it vague and unpleasant.
This story is disjointed, skipping from seemingly unrelated people--a young cyclist, then a teen in a poor neighborhood, then an adult man in a difficult marriage. It isn't until halfway through that it's clear that these three people are, in fact, one person. And it's only then that something begins to happen--when he makes a decision not to follow his plans and head to his old neighborhood. This, from the blurb, I gather, is when things actually begin to happen--somewhere past page 127 of 234. They'll have to happen without me, though, because that is far too long to flounder in weird dreams, fantasies, and fragmented moments of a life.
The story is dreamlike and violent, weirdly disconnected, and not terribly interesting to read. If it has a message, it isn't for me, because I found it vague and unpleasant.
October 2, 2020
numa das resenhas aqui do site, alguém relata que demorou bastante para perceber que o jovem do passado e o médico do presente eram as mesmas pessoas; que curioso, porque isso é possível de se notar já no terceiro capítulo, mas vou respeitar a leitura de cada um.
confesso que as imagens de violência e sangue me incomodaram bastante, embora também reconheça que sejam muito bem construídas. até o quarto da naiara ser vermelho me impactou de certa forma, como se fosse um prenúncio — ou só ambientação — para alguma cena violenta que fosse acontecer (e aquela mordida neh. ia arrancar um pedaço do peito do guri kkkkk).
achei braba demais a noção de tempo da história e da narrativa, com certeza um prof. menos tradicional poderia botar esse livro na disciplina de teoria da literatura e deixar proust um pouco de lado.
confesso que as imagens de violência e sangue me incomodaram bastante, embora também reconheça que sejam muito bem construídas. até o quarto da naiara ser vermelho me impactou de certa forma, como se fosse um prenúncio — ou só ambientação — para alguma cena violenta que fosse acontecer (e aquela mordida neh. ia arrancar um pedaço do peito do guri kkkkk).
achei braba demais a noção de tempo da história e da narrativa, com certeza um prof. menos tradicional poderia botar esse livro na disciplina de teoria da literatura e deixar proust um pouco de lado.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 5, 2017
This novel follows two story lines. The first is a young boy who gains attention by riding his bike as recklessly as possible, constantly crashing and injuring himself in the process. He's trying to figure out where he belongs in his small, tight-knit community, and attaches himself to various other boys in an attempt to fit in. The second story follows a man as he mentally prepares to climb a mountain, previously untouched by axes and climbers. He's reflecting on parts of his past, trying to determine what led him to the life he's currently leading. The young boy's story is far more interesting than the adult's, as the boy is surrounded by action and dialogue, whereas the man is mostly just thinking.
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