Which Brazilian author wrote 'Near to the Wild Heart'?

The Brazilian author who wrote Near to the Wild Heart is Clarice Lispector. Published in Portuguese as Perto do coração selvagem in December 1943, it was Lispector's debut novel and immediately established her as a startling new voice in Brazilian literature.

The novel follows Joana from childhood into early adulthood, concentrating less on external events than on her shifting inner life. Lispector uses fragmented impressions, psychological association, and a stream-of-consciousness-influenced style to explore desire, solitude, morality, marriage, and the difficulty of turning thought into language. The approach was unusual in Brazilian fiction at the time and prompted comparisons with writers such as James Joyce and Virginia Woolf.

Lispector began writing the book in 1942 while studying law and working as a journalist. The novel won the Graça Aranha Prize for the best debut novel of 1943, helping make its young author prominent. It was translated into English first by Giovanni Pontiero in 1990 and later by Alison Entrekin in 2012. The other options were accomplished Brazilian writers, but none wrote this particular novel.