Yaya Garcia (elsewhere spelt 'Iaia') is the story of a convoluted love triangle between Jorge, Estela and Yaya. The young, brash Jorge make a pass at Estela and is rejected. His shame forces him into exile, to fight the Argentinian dictator Rosas in Paraguay. Estela marries Luis Garcia, Yaya's father, in a loveless yet comfortable marriage. On his return from war, and much more mature, Jorge finds himself charged with looking after the well-being of the Garcia family, bringing him into intimate contact with his former love Estela, and Yaya, now a young woman also looking for love.

The book, as my description suggests, does contain many of the things that frequently frustrate 21st century readers about 19th century books. There is an obsession with marriage, an impossibility of anyone expressing their feelings explicitly, a stifling adherence to society's rules and an embargo on physical expressions of love. In short, all the things that make 19th century romances feel distant and inaccessible. Within these constraints, however, Machado de Assis creates an interesting scenario and, in a relatively short book, manages to build up a complex and believable web of frustrated emotions and tragi-comic misunderstanding. Although I did become interested in the characters, ultimately I wasn't remotely interested in the denouement, a sign that Machado de Assis' writing didn't really hit home. This was a pleasant and well-written read which, for me, was fairly inconsequential.