This was literally a case of not judging a book by its cover. The cover was awful! The book was actually rather good. The Maias are a gentry family living in mid-19th century Portugal, with money and position, but only one heir. The heir marries a rather unsuitable woman, who presents him with a son and a daughter. She then runs off with another man, taking the daughter with her. Her abandoned husband shoots himself. The baby son is brought up by his grandfather, and given the education of an English gentleman, this being the thing in upper class Portuguese circles at the time. He becomes a doctor … which seems an odd choice, but he does. However, he and his best mate go off the rails a bit, chasing around after married women. And then it turns out that his latest mistress is actually his long-lost sister … which is a bit tasteless, but the book *was* pretty good other than that.
Considering that it was over 600 pages long, not much actually happened, but it was a good read!
setinthepast 