Phenotypes

A year apart, the brothers could hardly differ more: Federico is large, silent and angry; Lourenço is good-looking, popular and a basketball player. Their father heads the state's forensic service, and racism follows them both, though only Lourenço looks Black. Lourenço shrugs it off; Federico, the narrator, becomes a relentless campaigner, marked by tough suburbs, failed romances and moments when he failed to stand up. Now in his late forties, he joins a federal panel in Brasília judging admissions under university race quotas, and painful memories surface amid the wrangling.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form

Novel

Length

160 pages in the original

Genres

Family, Politics (assigned by AI)

Set in

Brazil

First published

2019 by Alfaguara

Author's age

53 when first published

ISBN

9788556520913 (original)

9781913505189 (And Other Stories, United Kingdom)