She could be biting, enigmatic, funny – but never banal. The writer Clarice Lispector became a Brazilian icon precisely because of her columns. Now there is a fine selection in German.
It was the cigarette in the evening that almost killed her. As always, Clarice Lispector lit up at night, this time the sedatives took effect more quickly, and so the author fell asleep in bed with a fag. When she woke up, the room was on fire, the manuscripts were blazing, and she was badly burned trying to put out the fire. Later, at the clinic, they considered amputating her hand.