Violent and realistic, it's a true classic. If you liked the movie, you must get the book, it's much denser and better elaborated.

This is r.f.'s first book. the high art refers to the knife fighting skills acquired by the protaganist. High Art is similiar to the forbidden book (us) Hit Man, in describing in detail methods used to kill . it is a forbiden subject = all the more fascinating.

If you want to know the "high art" of Rubem Fonseca, you should read this novel first. The master of short stories is in your best shape telling the story of the lawyer/ detective Mandrake that's initially hired to find out a VCR tape and finishes to get involved with a serial killer that mark the "P" letter in the face of your victims and with a international criminal organization with headquarters in the city of Rio de Janeiro

More than Just a Detective Thriller: Although its category may Detective thrillers, and that is what it is and definitely what I thought it was when I bought it, it just goes beyond the mere murder (suicide), police novel. It tells the story of a high class woman that is married to a very wealthy fellow, but that is unhappy, for whatever reason and starts seeing for whatever reason a writer that happens to become her lover, and is till the end the first suspicious person around. This novel is so amazingly good, that, while you turn chapter to chapter, you start living different lives, different people, and very different scenarios. Not boring at all. And let me tell you, its magnificent narration makes one understand that "Life is solely the fight between the pleasures of life, and facts of suffering". The author tries to tell us that we are all searching for pleasure, all the time and everywhere. However, even the most pleasurable things we can achieve, at the end we may de confronted by suffering that can beat any present or future joy that any of us expects. All of these incorporated into a very good detective scheme and with very, but very surprising end. Excellent.

I have read this book twice. I love Fonsecas' style, and I have (almost) all his books. I would not like to type a long comment because it is not necessary. Fonseca does not need to be introduced, you just have to read him and you will be pleased.

This is a very good book, for the kind of people that loves adventures. You'll never find any other like this. It's simply the best book of Rubem Fonseca's archive.

This book is a great peace of literature. Some dialogues have focus on very interesting concepts, dealing with a lot of different points of view about cinema, literature and human behavior. It gives you the desire to learn more about the facts reported, such as the Isaak Bábel work. And also, the Rubem Fonseca's knowledge and the obvious research he made was more then vast and complete. I've read the portuguese version, but I bet the translation to English is as good as the original one.

In spite of being a page-turner, this is a book of criativity and of prose art. I thank a friend of mine of telling me about this writer. Now I stopped reading useless and trashy bestsellers to read him! And, moreover, it will seem ironic, but Fonseca is a bestseller himself indeed here in Brasil, matching great critics and great public! It is considered one of his best novels, along with "August", and I really agree!

The book is about a filmmaker who gets a package of a strange girl that asks to get into his apartment, because she is being chased. The guy let her enter into his apartment and place the package there and, before she scamper, she tell him not to mess with it, she will take it later, when she's safer. But it is only the starting point of the journey of the story. The guy will be involved with a carnival organizator - Negromonte -, a bisexual girl - she is his girlfriend -, a german productor who wants him to film a movie in europe, his dreams which are only with words - he doesn't see any images - and a lot more, all with realation with each other. Don't miss it!

(I can't understand hhow your publishers don't have other amazing books of brasilian writers. You are just loosing so much pleasure!)

Una novela de accion que va mas alla que cualquiera de las de su genero. Emocionante, angustiante y bien escrita. Una pieza de buena literatura.

Author: Rubem Fonseca Title:Bufo & Spallanzani (Black Past) IBSN: 8432455828 More than Just a Detective Thriller:

Although its category may Detective thrillers, and that is what it is and definitely what I thought it was when I bought it, it just goes beyond the mere murder (suicide), police novel.

It tells the story of a high class woman that is married to a very wealthy fellow, but that is unhappy, for whatever reason, and starts seeing a writer that happens to become her lover, and is untill the end the first suspicious person around.

This novel is so amazingly good, that, while you turn chapter to chapter, you start living different lives, different people, and very different scenarios. Not boring at all. And let me tell you, its magnificent narration makes one understand that "Life is only the fight between the pleasure of life, and the facts of suffering".

The author tries to tell us that we are all searching for pleasure. Even the most pleasurable things we do, at the end we may confront suffering that can beat any present or future joy that any of us expects. All of these incorporated into a very good scheme and with very, but very surprising end.