Fresh from the enormous success of her debut novel Near to the Wild Heart, Clarice Lispector let loose something stormier with The Chandelier. In a body of work renowned for its potent idiosyncratic genius, The Chandelier in many ways has pride of place. While on one level simply the story of a woman’s life, The Chandelier’s real drama lies in Lispector’s attempt “to find the nucleus made of a single instant … the tenuous triumph and the defeat, perhaps nothing more than breathing.” The Chandelier pushes Lispector’s lifelong quest for that nucleus into deeper territories than any of her other amazing works.
Translator Magdalena Edwards stopped by Skylight to discuss Lispector's seminal work.
Skylight Books Podcast Series