Her images dazzle even when her meaning is most obscure, and when she is writing of what she despises she is lucidity itself.

The Times Literary Supplement

In English for the first time.

A Breath of Life

by Clarice Lispector

Translated from Portuguese by Johnny Lorenz

Edited by Benjamin Moser

A mystical dialogue between a male author (a thinly disguised Clarice Lispector) and his/her creation, a woman named Angela, this posthumous work has never before been translated. Lispector did not even live to see it published. At her death, a mountain of fragments remained to be “structured” by a friend, Olga Borelli. These fragments form a dialogue between a god-like author who infuses the breath of life into his creation: the speaking, breathing, dying creation herself, Angela Pralini. The work’s almost occult appeal arises from the perception that if Angela dies, Clarice will have to die as well.

Paperback(published Jun, 13 2012)

ISBN
9780811219624
Price US
15.95
Price CN
17
Page Count
144

Ebook(published Jun, 13 2012)

ISBN
9780811220705
Price US
15.95
Portrait of Clarice Lispector

Clarice Lispector

20th-century Brazilian writer

Her images dazzle even when her meaning is most obscure, and when she is writing of what she despises she is lucidity itself.

The Times Literary Supplement

It is jarring and yet restorative to read a writer whose focus is so private, internal.

The Boston Globe

Both dazzling and difficult.

San Francisco Chronicle

Lispector’s intoxicating prose makes this experimental dialogue special.

Publishers Weekly

Lispector is an author that requires the reader’s full participation, but the rewards are sizable.

Scott Esposito, Barnes & Noble Review

The New Directions Lispector translation project is an incredibly important contribution to the canon of world literature.

The Coffin Factory

One of the twentieth century’s most mysterious writers in all her vibrant colours.

Orhan Pamuk