ONE OF GRANTA'S '20 BEST OF YOUNG BRAZILIAN NOVELISTS'

Selected as one of the Best Books 2017 in the Financial Times

Is it better to burn out than to fade away?

In this sinuous meditation on passion, youth and guilt, a man looks back twenty years to his relationship with his first love, Valeria. The year is 1993, and while he's undertaking military service, his best friend accompanies Valeria to a Nirvana gig in his absence - a night he feels has defined his entire adult life ever since.

Entwining this most personal story with seminal events of the 1990s, A Poison Apple circles back to some of the biggest questions: what is a life worth? What does it mean to really commit to living? And can we ever break free of the past?