While the novels of this late writer remain for the most part readily available, some of his short stories and {cro nicas} are here accessible for the first time in many years. His fans will immediately feel at home in these moments from the 1930s-40s with their sentimental {gau cho} strongmen who cry at the movies, a time when rumbles of European fascism sent occasional ripples across this placid provincial milieu. Eulogy receives new meaning in his light-hearted tribute to the recently-deceased Monteiro Lobato.