One of the most phenomenally acclaimed and successful books of recent years is now available as a paperback--with three just-discovered stories. Here, gathered in one volume, are the stories that made Clarice a Brazilian legend. Originally a cloth edition of eighty-six stories, now we have eighty- nine in all, covering her whole amazing career, from her teenage years to her deathbed. In these pages, we meet teenagers becoming aware of their sexual and artistic powers, humdrum housewives whose lives are shattered by unexpected epiphanies, old people who don't know what to do with themselves-- and in their stories, Clarice takes us through their lives--and hers--and ours.

Glamour and grammar / by Benjamin Moser -- First stories: The triumph ; Obsession ; The fever dream ; Jimmy and I ; Interrupted story ; The escape ; Excerpt ; Letters to Hermengardo ; Gertrudes asks for advice ; Another couple of drunks -- Family ties: Daydream and drunkenness of a young lady ; Love ; A chicken ; The imitation of the rose ; Happy birthday ; The smallest woman in the world ; The dinner ; Preciousness ; Family ties ; Beginnings of a fortune ; Mystery in Sô Cristóvô ; The crime of the mathematics teacher ; The buffalo -- The foreign legion: The disasters of Sofia ; The sharing of loaves ; The message ; Monkeys ; The egg and the chicken ; Temptation ; Journey to Petrópolis ; The solution ; Evolution of a myopia ; The fifth story ; A sincere friendship ; The obedient ones ; The foreign legion -- Back of the drawer: The burned sinner and the harmonious angels ; Profile of chosen beings ; Inaugural address ; Mineirinho -- Covert joy: Covert joy ; Remnants of carnival ; Eat up, my son ; Forgiving God ; One hundred years of forgiveness ; A hope ; The servant ; Boy in pen and ink ; A tale of so much love ; The waters of the world ; Involuntary incarnation ; Two stories my way ; The first kiss -- Where were you at night: In search of a dignity ; The departure of the train ; Dry sketch of horses ; Where were you at night ; Report on the thing ; Manifesto of the city ; The conjurings of Dona Frozina ; That's where I'm going ; The dead man in the sea at Urca ; Silence ; A full afternoon ; Such gentleness ; Soul storm ; Natural life -- The Via Crucis of the body: Explanation ; Miss Algrave ; The body ; Via Crucis ; The man who showed up ; He drank me up ; For the time being ; Day after day ; The sound of footsteps ; Before the Rio-Niterói Bridge ; Praça Mauá -- Pig Latin ; Better than to burn ; But it's going to rain -- Vision of splendor: Brasília -- Final stories: Beauty and the Beast or The enormous wound ; One day less -- Appendix: The useless explanation -- Translator's note / by Katrina Dodson -- Biographical note -- Acknowledgements.