His Own Man

A charismatic young diplomat in Brazil's Foreign Ministry, Marcilio Andrade Xavier (Max to his friends and colleagues) renounces his past ideals and becomes an informer after the military coup of 1964. While his colleagues attempt to reconcile themselves to the new realities of a dictatorship, Max begins to navigate the shadowy world of deception. During the ensuing "Dirty War," his government begins preying on its own citizens, and those who resist end up being tortured, killed, or simply "disappeared." Meanwhile, with virtuosic finesse, Max advances swiftly up the diplomatic ladder, somehow evading implication in any darker deeds. His artful maneuvering -- both personal and political -- astonishes his friends and assures him a meteoric career during the military regime. Ironically, once democracy is eventually restored after more than two decades, the enigmatic Max will still manage to thrive. But his singular career is achieved at a dire personal cost, for his relations with family and friends become irrevocably poisoned.

Set against the backdrop of ruthless embassy machinations, glittering parties, covert spy activities, and revealing intimate encounters, HIS OWN MAN offers an extraordinary and seductive protagonist, as well as a chilling anatomy of ambition, power, and betrayal.

Brazilian author and diplomat Edgard Telles Ribeiro (b. 1944) spent a peripatetic childhood in Marseille and various other European cities. After returning to Brazil, he worked as a journalist, filmmaker, and professor of film studies before entering the foreign service. His debut novel O Craido Mudo (The Night Table), was published in English to critical acclaim as I Would Have Loved Him If I Had Not Killed Him, and was subsequently translated into Dutch, German, and Spanish. Later novels and short story collections have garnered some of the most important literary prizes in Brazil, including the Jabuti Prize (twice), the Brazilian Academy of Letters Prize; and for his latest novel, HIS OWN MAN, the Brazilian PEN Prize (2011). He currently divides his time between New York and Rio de Janeiro.

Kim M. Hastings was raised overseas and lived for several years in Sao Paulo. She studied Brazilian language and literature at Brown University and has a PhD in Spanish and Portuguese from Yale. For the past fifteen years, she has been a freelance editor and translator, working with academic presses and commercial publishers. Her translations include fiction by Rubem Fonseca, Rachel Jardim, and Adriana Lisboa. The author lives in New York and Rio de Janeiro.