Near to the Wild Heart (New Directions Paperbook)

Price: $15.95 - $13.90
(as of Jul 20, 2025 09:20:54 UTC – Details)

This new translation of Clarice Lispector’s sensational first book tells the story of a middle class woman’s life from childhood through an unhappy marriage and its dissolution to transcendence.

Near to the Wild Heart, published in Rio de Janeiro in 1943, introduced Brazil to what one writer called “Hurricane Clarice”: a twenty-three-year-old girl who wrote her first book in a tiny rented room and then baptized it with a title taken from Joyce: “He was alone, unheeded, near to the wild heart of life.”

The book was an unprecedented sensation ― the discovery of a genius. Narrative epiphanies and interior monologue frame the life of Joana, from her middle-class childhood through her unhappy marriage and its dissolution to transcendence, when she proclaims: “I shall arise as strong and comely as a young colt.”

Publisher ‏ : ‎ New Directions
Publication date ‏ : ‎ June 13, 2012
Edition ‏ : ‎ Later Printing Used
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Print length ‏ : ‎ 220 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0811220028
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0811220026
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.2 x 0.6 x 8 inches
Best Sellers Rank: #34,750 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #49 in Hispanic American Literature & Fiction #61 in Jewish Literature & Fiction #1,906 in Literary Fiction (Books)