The Cariorker

The young wife of a legal solicitor in Lapa realizes that her husband's 15 year-old live-in clerk has fallen in love with her, because she always leaves her bare arms exposed at home in front of the inexperienced youngster. Often considered an erotic modulation to the scenario of "Midnight Mass," (S1,Ep3).

From "Uns Braços" by Machado de Assis, translation from Portuguese by Todd Conner; Violão by Todd Conner

The storyteller recounts a Christmas Eve he spent alone with a Rio housewife when he was 17. With the distance of time and maturity, he still struggles to come to terms with a conversation he had with her as his younger self, when he found her perplexing, enigmatic, yet unexpectedly beautiful. From "Missa do Galo" by Machado de Assis, translation from Portuguese by Todd Conner. Thanks for audience participation of Gabriel Baccarini, Alex Dmitriev, Raoni Lourenço, Paola Romangnani, and Dan Simon. Recorded at The Players Club, NYC.

Beneath a full moon over the hills of Santa Teresa in Rio de Janeiro, a gentleman fascinates his erudite friends by recounting a terrifying event in his life, leading him to the belief that every person alive has not one, but two souls. (From "O Espelho" by Machado de Assis, translation from Portuguese by Todd Conner)

A young Rio man in love consults a card reader against his better judgement. What is finally revealed to him comes as a shock not only to his own notions of belief, but, perhaps, yours as well. (From "A Cartomante" by Machado de Assis, translation from Portuguese by Todd Conner)

This first season of The Cariorker is dedicated to the contos (short stories) of "The Bruxo of Cosme Velho," Machado de Assis. This prologue is a discussion of the discovery you're about to make...of the greatest writer you (probably) never knew.