Reviews of A.G.
“This novel epitomizes the novel-in-stories concept. Through this method, Brian Sousa perfectly blends four generations of Portuguese American struggles endured by a family. Told from different perspectives in different years and cities, the novel delves into the secrets and stability desired by a family of Portuguese immigrants. It looks deeply at their familial life, culture, and, most importantly, their devastating hardships.” -World Literature Today
Necessary Fiction reviews Almost Gone, “The setting in most of these stories is around water and we are made ever conscious of the great beauty, brutality, death, and aliveness of the ocean. We, Almost Gone shows us through fine prose and unnerving storytelling, are like water…” FULL REVIEW HERE
HTML Giant’s Claire Blechman reviews Almost Gone here! “These are stories of loss, infidelity, alienation…all the persistent demons of modern suburban life. And for that matter, of suburban literature since the dawn of Cheever. But Almost Gone glimmers when Sousa manages to step outside conventional grief, and twist the knife ever so slightly…”
Michelle Richmond, author of the international bestseller The Year of Fog writes: “In the style of Peter Orner’s accomplished Esther Stories, Sousa manages to make almost every story a stand-alone piece, while constructing a whole that feels, in the end, like an exquisitely rendered novel…” Read the entire review here!
Mindy Peterman writes: “Brian Sousa’s Almost Gone is the story of four generations of a Portuguese family that is as wise as it is heartbreaking…” Read the entire review here!
Alice from the blog ‘Girls Just Reading’ reviewed Almost Gone, and writes: “As I was reading Almost Gone, I came to realize that each character was bitter. That bitterness they felt didn’t come from what each character didn’t have or what they were denied, it comes from knowing they had the opportunity to do something different and they chose not to. Man, I love stuff like that!”
Full Review here!
More Press:
Brian and Almost Gone were featured in the April issue of the Narragansett Times!
Almost Gone is featured in the current issue of Rhode Island Monthly, where Kris Reardon writes “Sousa brings out the tension of his narrators’ inner struggles in a haunting and real way…”
Steve Almond, author of “God Bless America,” interviews Brian Sousa for The Rumpus.Net here!
Read about Almost Gone via Emerson College’s website, in a great piece by Abigail Ledoux!
How did Almost Gone come to be? Or not be? Via Necessary Fiction
Almost Gone was featured in the Providence Journal here, in a review by Lois D. Atwood!
Blurbs:
“The stories in Sousa’s first collection present an intimate look at four generations of a Portuguese family’s assimilation into America. Spanning three continents — and by turns touching, violent, sad, sexy, and thoughtful — these stories offer both a panoramic view and a close-up view of the melding of cultures.”
—Ben Brooks, author of The Icebox and over 75 published stories, including O.Henry and Nelson Algren award-winning stories
“With Almost Gone, Brian Sousa records the lives of Portuguese immigrants and their descendants in the United States with poetically-crafted prose. First generation characters Nuno, Helena and Catarina fully display the pains and joys of adaptation to a new country as they look back to their early years rooted in small-town life. The narrative flows with great suspense through a series of interconnected vignettes that increasingly divulge deeply-kept secrets. A must-read!”
—Flora M. González Mandri, author of Guarding Cultural Memory: Afro-Cuban Women in Literature and the Arts