Heliopolis
Ratings1
Average rating4
15
Ratings1
Average rating4
A brilliantly original rags-to-riches tale, reminiscent of City of God, by the award-winning author of The Amnesia Clinic.As a child Ludo is plucked out of the shantytown where he was born and transported to a world of languid, cosseted luxury. Now twenty-seven, he works high above the above the sprawling metropolis of Sao Paulo for a vacuous 'communications company'. But this is not his world, and this is not a simple rags-to-riches story: Ludo's destiny moves him around like a chess piece, showing him both extremities of opulent excess and abject poverty, taking him to the brink of madness and brutality.
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I got this book in a fair and I must say: I was amazed. This book can make into various themes and situations without losing momentum (most of the times). The book has a clear message to me by the end of it, but the various plotlines are not dived into or developed enough. Social commentary isn't as present in it as I initially thought it was going to be, but it's pretty great to see a story so conscious (or at least tried to be) about my country's social and economical situation.
At the end of the day, this book is a tragicomedy full of absurdities and unsolved problems that sadly are set in stone to never be solved in the near future, just like Brazil.
