The Five Seasons of Love

Originally released in 2001, The Five Seasons of Love – winner of the Casa de las Américas Prize –, by João Almino, returns to bookstores in a new edition, with a new cover, an unprecedented critical review section and a blurb by Adriana Lisboa.

The Five Seasons of Love is a fascinating work that explores the transformations that have marked Brazil over the past three decades. Offering, as the author himself describes it, "a contemporary reflection on the dilemmas of lost youth, violence, sexual roles, and the changing face of love and friendship," João Almino's third novel presents itself as an ingenious metaphor for the end of an era and the illusion of the emergence of a new man.

The book contrasts modern-day Brasília, marked by violence, with the city the characters knew in their youth, a place where utopia seemed possible. With captivating language, the work is narrated from a female perspective, by the character Ana, who seeks "a meaning for the emptiness of the Central Plateau." The plot's central thread is the story of a love that is possible and not at all idealized. Through this, João Almino analyzes, beyond the exclusively erotic relationship, various manifestations of love: the desire for fulfillment in another, passionate love—a kind of voluntary servitude—unrequited love, the desire for possession, hungry love, among others. Through these multiple manifestations, the author reinterprets universal themes such as love and friendship, investigating how sex and sexuality influence the perception and experience of these emotions.

First published in 2001 and translated into several languages, including Spanish, English and Italian, The Five Seasons of Love returns to readers in a new edition, with a new cover, a new critical review section and a blurb by Adriana Lisboa.

"It's interesting to see how the novel, originally published in 2001, also finds new meaning in our times. If, "with her youthful illusion shattered," João Almino's narrator seeks the other equal to her dream, she also soberly reminds us that "the reality we don't know is always greater than all the dreams we dream." The sea is no longer missing. Brasília only needs the freedom of an immense sky." – Adriana Lisboa

“It is a necessary style in current Brazilian fiction.” – João Gilberto Noll

“Almino belongs to the lineage of those authors who expose and examine the characters’ states of mind, amplifying the possibilities of understanding and reflecting on the narrated fact.” – Luiz Ruffato

"João Almino's literature is contemporary; without illusions, merciless with utopias and easy dreams, he writes not like a portraitist who wishes to reproduce reality, to celebrate it, but like an executioner who, stepping on reality, pushes us face down to the ground." - José Castello