Ana Maria Machado is a pivotal figure in Brazilian children's literature, renowned for her masterful blend of social satire and fantastical elements. Her writing, steeped in magical realism, features a playful command of language and narrative structures that often subvert traditional storytelling conventions. Through humorous narratives and symbolic language, Machado delicately conveys messages about freedom, human rights, and the importance of coexistence. Her works expand the sense of space and time, seamlessly weaving reality and fantasy to explore the invisible connections between generations.
Based on the author's own experiences of life, exile, and return under the dictatorship that gripped Brazil in the 1960s and 1970s, this novel follows Lena, a journalist, as she resists political repression, and flees to Paris. Originally published in 1988, Ana Maria Machado's novel captures one of the darkest periods in recent Brazilian history.