Almost Gone

"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

"The deceptively straightforward stories of Almost Gone sneak up to unfold in every direction, across distance and generations, as in raw-edged, pared-down lyricism Brian Sousa reveals a humming web of tragedy and wonder staked across the sprawling networks of modern life. In his resonant overlapping of characters losing and finding themselves he works magic, revealing those timeless in-between spaces where life"•and art"•mean the most."—Steve Himmer, author of The Bee-Loud Glade

"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 winners

"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

"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."—SansSerif.com

"Almost Gone is an evocative, sensual journey that carries us from Portugal to America, by way of the human heart."—Lise Haines, author of Girl in the Arena, Small Acts of Sex and Electricity, and In My Sister's Country