Why This World: A Biography of Clarice Lispector

"That rare person who looked like Marlene Dietrich and wrote like Virginia Woolf," Clarice Lispector is one of the most popular but least understood of Latin American writers. Now, after years of research on three continents, drawing on previously unknown manuscripts and dozens of interviews, Benjamin Moser demonstrates how Lispector's development as a writer was directly connected to the story of her turbulent life. Born in the nightmarish landscape of post-World War I Ukraine, Clarice became, virtually from adolescence, a person whose beauty, genius, and eccentricity intrigued Brazil. Why This World tells how this precocious girl, through long exile abroad and difficult personal struggles, matured into a great writer. It also asserts, for the first time, the deep roots in the Jewish mystical tradition that make her the true heir to Kafka as well as the unlikely author of "perhaps the greatest spiritual autobiography of the twentieth century." From Chechelnik to Recife, from Naples and Berne to Washington and Rio de Janeiro, Why This World strips away the mythology surrounding this extraordinary figure and shows how Clarice Lispector transformed one woman's struggles into a universally resonant art.
A National Book Critics Circle Award finalist
A New York Times Notable Book
An L.A. Times Nonfiction Favorite
A Booklist Editor's Choice
"Lively, ardent and intellectually rigorous."
--The New York Times Book Review
"An absorbing and perceptive biography of a fascinating writer."
--The Economist
"A smart, passionate portrait of a truly remarkable writer. Lispector is a great subject, and Moser is the perfect biographer for her."
--Jonathan Franzen
"A biography worthy of its great subject.... One of the twentieth century's most mysterious writers is finally revealed in all her vibrant colors."
--Orhan Pamuk