The Imitation of the Rose by Clarice Lispector

Introducing Little Clothbound Classics: irresistible, mini editions of short stories, novellas and essays from the world's greatest writers, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith.

Like an addict, she looked with faint greed at the roses’ tantalizing perfection

Thirteen short tales from one of the most blistering and innovative writers of the twentieth century.

The small incidents of life become moments of inner revelation in the luminous writing of Clarice Lispector. A woman contemplating a vase of roses after a nervous breakdown; a tangled mother-daughter relationship; a man’s abandonment of a dog; an animal in a zoo: each one leads to mystery and self-discovery, delight and devastation.

The Brazilian novelist and short-story writer Clarice Lispector became famous as ‘Hurricane Clarice’ for her first novel Near to the Wild Heart, published when she was twenty-three. Her trailblazing fiction brought her international renown.

Translated by Katrina Dodson and edited by Benjamin Moser