Clarice Lispector, the youngest of three daughters, was born in Tchetchelnik, Ukraine, to Ukrainian parents on December 10, 1920. At the time the family was en route to Brazil, where they lived first in Alagoas, then Recife, and finally in Rio de Janeiro. The year of her birth has been established only recently, since Lispector routinely lied about her age, either from feminine modesty or to give the illusion of having been an early blooming writer. Thus her birth year is variously cited as 1920, 1921, 1924, and 1925, depending upon the date of the publication. Her mother, Marieta, was paralyzed during Clarice's childhood and died when Clarice was nine. Her father, Pedro, could not afford to buy the books that he and his daughters loved, so Clarice made use of the local library. She was a good student, and one of the very few women to earn a secondary degree in...