The story focuses on the decay of the Meneses family and depicts themes such as extramarital affairs, forbidden love, incestuous relationships, kinship, homosexuality, and violent acts.
The plot is punctuated by sin, death and illness, and it shows the result of the presence of three brothers (Demétrio, Valdo and Timóteo) and two wives (Ana and Nina).
André opens the book in a cyclic key: He is the character who retells Nina's death, so the story starts from the end of the chronology.
[3] Crônica da casa assassinada is the best-known work by Brazilian novelist, poet and playwright Lúcio Cardoso.
[4][5][6][7] Critic Alfredo Bosi points out that the novel's theme is linked to religious and spiritualist issues, immersed in the formal freedom conquered by the vanguards in a “descent into the hell of anguish and guilt.”[8] However, a difficulty persists in characterizing it in one of the currents of the Brazilian novel.