'There are thousands of girls like this girl from the Northeast to be found in the slums of Rio de Janeiro, living in bedsitters and toiling behind the counters for all they are worth... Few of them ever complain and as far as I know they never protest, for there is no one to listen...'

Clarice Lispector died of cancer at the age of fifty-six on 9th December 1977. The Hour of the Star was published that same year and acclaimed by the critics as ‘a regional allegory’ of extraordinary awareness and insight. Lispector herself defined The Hour of the Star as a book ‘made without words...a mute photograph...a silence...a question’. The tale of Macabéa can be read at different levels and lends itself to various interpretations. The book’s subtle interplay of fiction and philosophy sums up Lispector’s unique talent as a writer and her lasting influence on contemporary Brazilian writing.