Osman Lins was always aware of the writer's professional problems of survival and acceptance in Brazilian society, which had been under military rule since 1964. During these difficult historical times, when centralization of power largely depended on the media, Lins became especially sensitive to the liberating function of literature in modern society, an underlying topic in his fiction.

Born on 5 July 1924 in Vitória de Santo Antão in the state of Pernambuco a few days before his mother's death and raised by his grandmother, who later appeared as one of his fictional characters in Nove, novena (Nine, Novena, 1966), Lins had a solitary childhood that gave him an introspective nature, which was to be developed in his literary career. This introspection, a distinctive mark that inextricably ties his life to his work, is evident in his unique tendency for self-reflexiveness. His critical approach to his own writing...