Heh, no problem!
It's Machado de Assis. He's a badass brazilian writer from the sec. XIX. He's considered one of the biggest novelist in the portuguese language. His books went deep in the relationship psychè-culture-exploitation, with a lot of classical references and ridiculously funny passages/characters.
Also, he was a black guy writing in a society were the economy was largely based on slavery exploitation. The guy is a myth.
I strongly recommend the books
Lord Taciturn: a story about a jealous man that is convinced that the only woman that he loved betrayed him. But he has nothing on her, so he lives a disturbed life because of it.
and
Epitaph of a Small Winner , it's a book about a defunct bourgeois that, after his death, decides to write a book about his life. It's incredible funny and touches in a lot of the social problems of the brazilian slave-based society.
Edit: Woody Allen
said that Epitath of a Small Winner is one of the 5 best books that he has ever read.
I just got this [book] in the mail one day. Some stranger in Brazil sent it and wrote, "You'll like this". Because it's a thin book, I read it. If it had been a thick book, I would have discarded it.
I was shocked by how charming and amusing it was. I couldn't believe he lived as long ago as he did. You would've thought he wrote it yesterday. It's so modern and so amusing. It's a very, very original piece of work. It rang a bell in me, in the same way that The Catcher in the Rye did. It was about subject matter that I liked and it was treated with great wit, great originality and no sentimentality.
So there is that