Clarice Lispector. 
 
New Directions: 1990. First edition of the English translation. Hardcover in a jacket. Octavo. Shelfwear along the edges of the jacket, and tanning along the edges as well as down the spine. Price sticker on the back cover. Shelfwear along the edges of the boards and a few corners are bumped. Underlining on several pages but not throughout. 192 pages. Very good. Very rare. 
 
Lispector's first novel was published to sensational acclaim when she was nineteen. By echoing Joyce's literary techniques Lispector came into herself as a writer and catapulted Brazilian literature into modernity. The book investigates themes - sexuality, family, revelation - that would occupy Lispector for her entire career. 
 
"My fingers have become stiff, she said, proud of being able to play from memory. As she spoke, she threw her head back, suddenly appearing coquettish as if she were a dancer in a cabaret. Otavio blushed. Whore, he thought, and erased the word at once with a painful movement. But how dare she?  He remembered her face leaning over him attentively, concerned about his stomach-ache. That's why I detest her, he thought illogically. And it was always too late : the thought anticipated him. Whore - as if he were thrashing himself with a whip. Yet even though he repented, he would sin again."