Clarice Lispector

Clarice Lispector was a Brazilian writer who is considered one of the most important literary figures of the 20th century. She wrote novels, short stories, essays, and journalism, exploring themes of identity, language, time, and solitude. She was born to a Jewish family in Ukraine in 1920, and moved to Brazil with her parents and sisters when she was a baby, fleeing the pogroms and the aftermath of the First World War. She grew up in Recife and Rio de Janeiro, where she studied law and began her literary career. She married a Brazilian diplomat in 1943 and lived in various countries, such as Italy, Switzerland, England, and the United States, until her divorce in 1959. She then returned to Rio de Janeiro, where she worked as a journalist and wrote some of her most acclaimed works, such as The Passion According to G.H., The Hour of the Star, and Água Viva. She also wrote many letters and interviews, revealing her personal views on life, literature, and spirituality. She died of ovarian cancer in 1977, one day before her 57th birthday. She is widely regarded as a master of the Portuguese language and a pioneer of modernist literature in Brazil.