The greatest human being alive

In his newest novel, The Greatest Human Being Alive , Pedro Guerra tells the story of Nilo, an anti-hero of modern times, and his odyssey in search of success and advancement in 21st-century São Paulo.

Nilo, the protagonist of The Greatest Human Being Alive , is ambitious, vulnerable to temptation, and voracious to the point of swallowing his entire life like a giant dry martini, his favorite drink. He's somewhat cynical and amoral, but generous and free from prejudice. His self-mockery and sensitive observation of others are both witty and corrosive. Because of all this, he's always betrayed by his own temperament, forcing major reversals in his plans for the future.

Early in his career, as a talented lawyer, he experienced a rapid and, in more ways than one, dizzying rise. The world of major mergers and acquisitions, oiled by million-dollar sums and populated by a gallery of "faria limers"—Reggie, his close friend; Melissa, the lawyer he falls in love with; Jefferson, the coffee boy and drug dealer, among others—is the perfect environment for his personality traps to spring into action.

The book's language, narrated in the first person, is perfectly suited to the protagonist: clever, agile, cultured, and, at the same time, iconoclastic. It exposes the narrator's weaknesses without any disguise, and its speed makes the reader as compulsive as Nilo. When there is a pause, it is because the previous scene was groundbreaking, and the interval functions primarily to allow the reader to catch their breath until the next extreme situation.

"Medianismo," Nilo's next venture, is a denial of everything he's just experienced as a lawyer. It's a stand-up comedy show, and also a new philosophy of life, a scathing form of resistance to the various forms of exploitation present in the contemporary world. Amid references ranging from Seneca to Julio Iglesias, Pedro Guerra guides the protagonist with a firm hand until the decisive moment, when Nilo's talent, the success of his show, and his temperament once again result in an explosive mix, exacerbated by the prevailing madness of social media.

"This stunning and sagacious novel took my breath away with a series of precise, finely orchestrated blows. Pedro Guerra masters a kind of literary martial art." – Natércia Pontes, writer, for the back cover of The Greatest Human Being Alive