The Life and Death of Carolina Maria de Jesus

by José Carlos Sebe Bom Meihy, Robert M. Levine, José Carlos Sebe Bom Meihy

Book Overview

In the dozen years Carolina Maria de Jesus (1914-1977) lived in a S o Paulo, Brazil, shanty slum, she survived by rummaging for junk. She also kept a diary of her abject poverty. Black, illegitimate, and poor, she suddenly became at age forty-six Brazil's best-selling author when a book drawn from her diaries appeared in 1960. An English translation, Child of the Dark, was published in 1962 and sold over 300,000 copies in the United States...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0826316484
• ISBN13: 9780826316486
• Release Date: September 1995
• Publisher: University of New Mexico Press
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Fascinating portrait of an African-Brazilian woman writer

This is a marvelous study not only of a poignant African-Brazilian woman persecuted for daring to state her beliefs, but one that reveals the different ways that American (Levine) and Brazilian (Meihy) scholars perceive the problems of race in society. A must read for anyone interested in Latin American society or the history of women or of blacks in the hemisphere.