Antonio Vitor Souza '21

Hello! My name is Vitor, I am from São Paulo, and I double majored in Biology and Economics. I worked at the Circulation Desk at Baker-Berry, and my recommendation of the best study spots in the library are 3FB and the tower room. My favorite activities at Dartmouth were skiing and kayaking, and next year I’ll be in New York working in management consulting. 

As I prepare to leave college, I am excited to leave behind yet another mark of my presence by recommending a book to be added to the library archive. When searching for a book that is meaningful to me, I reflected on my background, my Dartmouth experience, and my passions. In the end, I chose The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas for a simple reason: it is an extraordinary book, and I wish everyone had the chance to read it.  

I first read the original, Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas, when I was in high school. Today, it is still one of the best books I have ever read. Dave Eggers described it as “One of the wittiest, most playful, and... most alive and ageless books ever written.” And yet, although it is one of the greatest masterpieces of Brazilian literature, the language barrier makes it so that very few people in the U.S. have even heard of it. I saw this as an opportunity to break that barrier. Through this translated version of a masterpiece, I hope to share with the Dartmouth community a bit of my country’s culture. Even though the translation is remarkable, I recommend the original to those who can and wish to appreciate Machado’s brilliant use of the Portuguese language. Lastly, I hope this volume inspires laugh and admiration in hundreds of future Dartmouth students (“or fifty, or twenty, or even ten. Ten? Five, perhaps!” – Machado de Assis).