Near to the Wild Heart

Near to the Wild Heart announced Brazil to the force of “Hurricane Clarice”—a twenty-three-year-old prodigy who wrote her debut in a tiny rented room. She christened it with a title borrowed from Joyce: “He was alone, unheeded, near to the wild heart of life.”

The novel was an immediate sensation, heralding the arrival of a remarkable literary voice. Through narrative epiphanies and penetrating interior monologue, it traces the life of Joana—from her middle-class childhood, through the frustrations and dissolution of her unhappy marriage, to a moment of transcendent self-realization. In the novel’s unforgettable finale, she declares: “I shall arise as strong and comely as a young colt.”

Brimming with emotional intensity and daring formal innovation, Near to the Wild Heart established Clarice Lispector as a visionary whose exploration of consciousness and desire continues to resonate across generations.