In this multi-award-winning autobiographical novel, Cristovão Tezza draws readers into the mind of a young father whose son, Felipe, is born with Down syndrome. From the initial shock of diagnosis, and through his growing understanding of the world of hospitals and therapies, Tezza threads the story of his son's life with his own. Felipe, who lives in an eternal present, becomes a remarkable young man; for Tezza, however, the story is a settling of accounts with himself and his own limitations and ultimately a coming to terms with the sublime ironies and arbitrariness of life. He struggles with the phantom of shame, as if his son's condition were an indication of his own worth, and yearns for a "normal" world that is always out of reach. Reading this compelling book is like stumbling through a trapdoor into the writer's mind, where nothing is censored and everything is constantly examined and reinterpreted.

CRISTOVÃO TEZZA, one of Brazil's foremost contemporary novelists, was born in 1952. He has published thirteen novels, including O Filho Eterno (The Eternal Son), which won every major literary prize in Brazil in 2008 and was shortlisted for the 2012 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. ALISON ENTREKIN has translated a number of works by Brazilian authors, including City of God by Paulo Lins, Budapest by Chico Buarque, and Near to the Wild Heart by Clarice Lispector.

"An unflinching and eloquent book."—Canberra Times

"Often confronting and uncomfortable, The Eternal Son explores lives and emotions rarely touched on. Significantly, Tezza does so without wallowing in pity or in a self-righteous sense of overcoming adversity."—José Borghino, The Australian

"This excellent book, which has won every major Brazilian literary prize, describes the reactions of a young man to the birth and growth of his son, a child with Down syndrome... The ruminatory style is never static or suffocating, and although the father can be said to learn and grow (as does his son), Tezza doesn't embarrass us or cheapen the material by signpointing a moral journey. He doesn't try to move us, either, and the book doesn't treat us to an emotional splurge as a reward for enduring the confronting subject matter: but it is highly intelligent, drily humorous, and beautifully written (and translated, by Australian-born Alison Entrekin)."—Owen Richardson, The Age

"In his autobiographical novel, Brazilian author Tezza applies unflinching honesty and a writer's inquisitiveness to the story of his gradual acceptance of his own son... A remarkable tale of a father finding humility."—Sun Herald