The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas, also translated as Epitaph of a Small Winner, is a novel by the Brazilian writer Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis that is regarded as one of the greatest works of Brazilian literature. The book is presented as the memoirs of its protagonist, Brás Cubas, as told from beyond the grave. Published in 1881, the novel has a unique style of short, erratic chapters shifting in tone and style. Instead of the clear and logical construction of a normal nineteenth-century realist novel, the novel makes use of surreal devices of metaphor and playful narrative construction. (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0)