Chronicle of the Murdered House
The story takes place at the dilapidated ancestral estate of the once-proud Meneses family in the rural Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. When Valdo, the youngest brother, marries Nina, a fascinating and erratic outsider from Rio de Janeiro, the family's peaceful stagnation is upended. Plots for retribution, forbidden passions, and intense rivalries are all sparked by her arrival.
Cardoso uses a network of letters, diaries, confessions, and statements to tell the story out of chronological order rather than with a single narrator. Family members, servants, and locals like the pharmacist, doctor, and priest provide their perspectives.
Cardoso's complex voice is captured by the translators, who are commended for the novel's expressive, poetic, and darkly sensual writing style. Readers must piece together what actually transpired because each narrator only has partial truths and personal prejudices.
The book is sometimes likened to Absalom, Absalom! and As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner! for its examination of a collapsing patriarchal dynasty, heavy gothic atmosphere, and polyphonic structure.
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