The star rises

Leniza, like the unequal city she inhabits, is mischievous and shy, self-serving and compassionate, loving and cruel. She pursues her dreams, at any cost.

Leniza Máier, radio singer!…

Her portrait in the newspapers, money galore, dressing up, eating well! There's no equal to Carmen Miranda, but Leniza is a charmer, and there are so many worse on the radio... And so, the young woman born in Santo Cristo and raised in Saúde, the cradle of the Rio spirit of samba and ginga, dreams big. And the path to stardom for the ambitious demands, precisely, a lot of skill and a bit of guile.

"A Estrela Sobe" (The Star Rises) is considered by critics to be the mature novel by Marques Rebelo, a writer, journalist, and great chronicler of Rio de Janeiro in the 1930s and 1950s. In his short stories, chronicles, and novels, the author portrayed the reality of the middle and suburban classes of a city undergoing rapid transformation: the end of the First Republic; the Vargas Era; industrialization; urban acceleration; the radio boom; and the beginning of a culture and mass consumption. With cadence, rhythm, and a distinctive style, replete with colloquialisms, slang, and swing, Rebelo enchants readers with a realistic narrative that also resonates with radio soap operas—so much so that, in 1974, the book was adapted for film, starring the great actress Betty Farias.

According to Luiz Antonio Simas, historian, professor, and writer who wrote the foreword to this edition, A Estrela Sobe is, in a way, a novel about Rio de Janeiro itself, exposing contradictions, loves, violence, and fascinations—layers of tension and intensity. And recalling songs by Noel Rosa, a fellow countryman of Marques Rebelo, Simas invites us to read A Estrela Sobe and hear a voice, as if in the heat of the moment: "Pleasure to meet you, I'm the city of São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro. But you can call me Leniza Máier."