Brazil

“The Smallest Woman in the World” (A menor mulher do mundo) is a short story by Clarice Lispector, published in 1960 in the book Laços de família. In the depths of equatorial Africa, the French explorer Marcel Pretre discovers a tribe of extraordinarily tiny pygmies and, among them, an even smaller woman: a human figure scarcely forty-five centimeters tall, whom he names Little Flower. Astonished by the discovery, the explorer decides to study her, while news and a photograph of the tiny woman spread through the newspapers, provoking a range of reactions among those who gaze upon her image.

Covert Joy (Felicidade clandestina) is a short story by Clarice Lispector, published in 1971. It tells the story of a girl who is passionate about reading and longs for a book that is impossible for her. The daughter of a bookshop owner, a cruel and manipulative girl, promises to lend it to her but always finds new excuses to deny it. The protagonist, clinging to hope, returns daily a prisoner of an illusion that always eludes her.