Letters close to the heart

Organized by Fernando Sabino himself, Letters Close to the Heart presents his correspondence with Clarice Lispector between 1946 and 1969. Now in a special edition with a hardcover and new graphic design, the work includes a previously unpublished preface by Nádia Battella Gotlib, a professor at USP, and also previously unpublished facsimiles of the letters and reading notes from the original of The Apple in the Dark (1998).

"In January 1944, I had barely turned twenty when I received in Belo Horizonte, where I still lived, a copy of a novel called Near to the Wild Heart , with a dedication from the author, Clarice Lispector, whom I didn't know who she was [...]. I was dazzled by the book. [...] Rubem Braga met Clarice in Naples during the war [...]. When she returned to Brazil, Rubem introduced us. I was dazzled by her," says Fernando Sabino in the Introduction to Letters Near to the Wild Heart , a book that does justice to the long and deep friendship that two of Brazil's most important writers built over the decades.

After being introduced by Rubem Braga, Sabino and Lispector began a fraternal relationship marked by hours of conversation at scheduled meetings or at the writer's own home, where Clarice met his wife, Helena, and longtime friends. As they traveled extensively, they maintained the habit of writing to each other, cultivating their bond of friendship and intellectual and emotional exchanges. First published in 2001, the letters presented here allow us to glimpse the inner world of these two writers as young men.

The dialogue between her and Sabino was, in addition to being pioneering, one of the most intense since the beginning of her literary career.

Now in a hardcover edition, with a new graphic design by award-winning designer Luciana Facchini, a previously unpublished preface by Nádia Battella Gotlib, facsimiles, and a previously unpublished letter from Clarice to Helena, Cartas perto do coração returns to the hands of those who love the witty writing of Fernando Sabino and the poetic and introspective writing of Clarice Lispector.

"It's curious how your book and mine have the same roots. Maybe you don't think or feel that way. I do. But yours ends with a brighter light—the appointed meeting is realized. [...] But, Fernando, isn't the fact that you wrote this book and I wrote mine the beginning of maturity? [...] It gave me the certainty of an appointed meeting, and hope. [...] The truth is, Fernando, that after this book, I'm still more your friend. But the truth is also that if I hadn't liked it so much, I would be too." - From Clarice Lispector to Fernando Sabino, January 8, 1957

"The literary works of Fernando Sabino and Clarice Lispector—which include the well-written letters collected here—remain available for reading as works of aesthetic importance. But they are also substantial pieces in terms of documentary content, as they point to a historical context. And they are enjoyable to read because of their relaxed tone of conversation about 'almost everything.' They definitely comprise a memorable chapter in Brazilian literary culture." – Nádia Battella Gotlib, for the preface to Letters Close to the Heart