Clarice Lispector

"The Passion According to G.H." (1964) is a dense, existential monologue triggered when a wealthy sculptress encounters a dead cockroach while cleaning a maid's room. The encounter precipitates a metaphysical crisis in which the narrator confronts questions of identity, existence, and the nature of being.

Lispector was born in 1920 in what is now Ukraine to a Jewish family fleeing anti-Semitic pogroms; the family emigrated to northeastern Brazil when she was still an infant. She grew up in Recife before moving to Rio de Janeiro, where she began her journalism and literary career.

"The Hour of the Star" (A Hora da Estrela, 1977) was Lispector's last novel, published shortly before her death from cancer. It tells the story of a male narrator attempting to write about a poor, naive young woman from northeast Brazil, and is celebrated for its self-reflexive structure.

Benjamin Moser's translations of Lispector's complete novels, published by New Directions, were instrumental in introducing her to a broad English-language readership in the 2010s. Moser also wrote the biography "Why This World" (2009), which helped spark international interest in her life and work.