Twenty After Midnight

Translated from the Portuguese by Julia Sanches

2022 Longlist

The world had been theirs in the late 90s: they were the young provocateurs behind a countercultural scene, digital bohemians creating a new future. But fifteen years later, Duke, the leader and undisputed genius of their group, has been murdered, and the three remaining members of their circle reunite to piece together what became of their lives and how they fell so short of their expectations.

Now in their thirties, Aurora, Antero, and Emiliano have succumbed to the pressures of adulthood, the exigencies of carving out a life in a country that is fraying at the seams. Reunited after years of long-held grudges and painful crushes, the three try to resurrect the spirit of the all-night parties and early morning trysts, the protests and pornography of their youths. Lurking over them, as they puzzle out their fates, is the question of whether or not there is a future for them to believe in, or if the end has already arrived.

Twenty After Midnight is a portrait of the first generation of the digital age, a group that was promised everything but handed a fractured world. Daniel Galera has written a pre-apocalyptic tale of millennial longings.

About the Author/Translator

Daniel Galera is a Brazilian writer, translator, and editor. He has published four novels in Brazil to great acclaim, including Blood-Drenched Beard, which was awarded the 2013 Sao Paolo Literature Prize. He has also translated the work of Zadie Smith and Jonathan Safran Foer into Portuguese.

Julia Sanches is a literary translator working from Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Catalan into English. Born in Brazil, she has spent extended periods in the United States, Mexico, Switzerland, Scotland, and Catalonia, giving her an intimate knowledge of the languages, cultures, and literatures she works in. She is a founding member of Cedilla & Co., a collective of translators committed to making international voices heard in English.

Librarian’s Comments

“With a language that is sometimes shocking and strong, the book captivates and captivates us by dealing with a reality so close and already so far away by portraying the beginnings of an era of dizzying speed and frightening superficiality of personal and planetary relationships and commitments.
In the author’s words, a glimpse of what the work reveals: “”a feeling of anxiety, suffocation, excess of information that people in general are experiencing, but especially my generation. We live in a constant deconstruction of our expectations, precepts that were taken for granted are entering a crisis.””
Twenty after Midnight reports the speed of the world we live in, with an excess of signs around us, without cohesive parameters to establish limits and spaces. A society on the edge of an abyss in a story written under this pressure and speed of clicks and likes. Biblioteca Demonstrativa do Brasil Maria da Conceicao Moreira Salles, Brazil.