Welcome to Sao Paulo, Brazil, in the not too distant future. Water is scarce, garbage clogs the city, movement is restricted, and the System--sinister, omnipotent, secret--rules its subjects' every moment and thought. Here, middle-aged Souza lives a meaningless life in a world where hope is a lie and all memory of the past is forbidden. A classic novel of "dystopia," looking back to Orwell's 1984 and forward to Terry Gilliam's Brazil,...