The Double Death of Quincas Water-Bray — Jorge Amado

Widely considered the greatest work by the foremost Brazilian author of the twentieth century, "The Double Death of Quincas Water-Bray" comes to Penguin Classics in a new translation by the dean of Portuguese-language translators, Gregory Rabassa. It tells the story of Joaquim Soares da Cunha, who drops dead after he abandons his life of upstanding citizenship to assume the identity of Quincas Water-Bray, a "champion drunk" and bum who is whisked along on a postmortem journey that climaxes in his loss at sea.