The Life and Death of Carolina Maria de Jesus - (Diálogos) by Robert M Levine & José Carlos Sebe Bom Meihy (Paperback)

About the Book

Robert Levine tells the story of Carolina Maria de Jesus (1914-1977), Brazilian, Black, illegitimate, extremely poor, and Brazil's best-selling author upon the publication of her journals.

Book Synopsis

Robert Levine tells the story of Carolina Maria de Jesus (1914-1977), Brazilian, Black, illegitimate, extremely poor, and Brazil's best-selling author upon the publication of her journals.

From the Back Cover

In the dozen years Carolina Maria de Jesus (1914-1977) lived in a Sao 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 dawn form her diaries appeared in 1960.

Review Quotes

a[The authorsa] reconstruction of her life story is compelling reading. . . . Strongly recommended.a

aA haunting chronicle of hunger . . . a dramatic document of the dispossessed that both shocks and moves the reader.a

aIt is a minor classicabecause it is one of the very few books that have ever been written about the lowest and poorest, "les misA(c)rables" by one of themselves. Her book contains the seldom-told truth which inspires in some compassion, in some revulsion, and in others revolution.a

aThis is an intriguing and thought-provoking biography. . . . Levine and Sebe offer a poignant and provocative study. . . .a

ÝThe authors¨ reconstruction of her life story is compelling reading. . . . Strongly recommended.

A haunting chronicle of hunger . . . a dramatic document of the dispossessed that both shocks and moves the reader.

It is a minor classicbecause it is one of the very few books that have ever been written about the lowest and poorest, "les misrables" by one of themselves. Her book contains the seldom-told truth which inspires in some compassion, in some revulsion, and in others revolution.

This is an intriguing and thought-provoking biography. . . . Levine and Sebe offer a poignant and provocative study. . . .

"This is an intriguing and thought-provoking biography . . . Levine and Sebe offer a poignant and provocative study . . ."

About the Author

Robert M. Levine is director of the Center for Latin American Studies, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida.

Historian José Carlos Sebe Bom Meihy, of the University of São Paulo, is a co-founder of the Brazilian Oral History Association.