Laços de Família

This collection of thirteen short stories by Clarice Lispector, set mostly among middle-class families in Rio de Janeiro, shows ordinary women at moments when routine breaks and something unexpected comes through. In "Love," a housewife on a tram sees a blind man chewing gum and feels her stable life shaken. In "The Chicken" and other pieces, small events lead to inner turning points. Lispector writes in a precise, intense, interior style.

For readers of Brazilian and modern literature who like psychologically acute stories. It rewards slow reading, and is a good introduction to one of Brazil's major twentieth-century writers.

Deep, inward-looking, open-ended and thought-provoking; a moderate read.

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