The black fur of fear

The book is set over a weekend in 1980s Paraty, where a couple—he a writer, she a composer—live their fears and passions. But the brief span of the weekend stretches, as they are overcome by memories of stories, both told and lived, that weave Brazil's decades-long trajectory: from rural to urban; from the hopes of the 1950s to the repression of the dictatorship; from women who sublimate love to those who learn to live it freely. Around the corner, however, fear always lurks.