Maria

Maria is the protagonist and main character in the novel. Maria is a girl who grows up in a small town in Brazil where women's roles are strictly traditional. Maria hopes to fall in love with a wonderful man, marry, and raise children just like her mother. Maria's sense of adventure leads her on a different path from all the other girls she knows, and because Maria is especially beautiful she is chosen for an employment opportunity in Europe, an event that thrills Maria. Much of what Maria knows about the world she has learned by going to the movies, and she gauges many of her amorous encounters by what she has seen in motion pictures. Maria's expectations of happy endings are tempered by reality, and she is able to survive by adapting to her circumstances. Maria is a voracious reader and, even while working as a prostitute...