Blood of Requited Love

This inventive novel is a series of questions and confessional answers, an internal dialogue between Josemar, a construction worker, and Maria, a privileged young woman. Looking back at the teenage passion they shared from the remove of ten years, they try to reconstruct their story despite the obstacles of time's passage, societal disapproval, and family pressure. Set in a provincial Brazilian town, Blood of Requited Love explores memory and its failing, self-deception and its costs, and the hidden manacles of machismo. Back in print after being unavailable for several years, this novel is a moving work that combines the high drama of pulp fiction with Puig's acclaimed, incisive writing style.