Robert Levine tells the story of Carolina Maria de Jesus (1914-1977), Brazilian, Black, illegitimate, extremely poor, and Brazil's best-selling author upon the

Carolina Maria de Jesus (1914-1977), nicknamed Bitita, was a destitute black Brazilian woman born in the rural interior who migrated to the industrial city of S

"Never before published in English, Carolina's second diary, written in 1960-61, describes her life in the first year after the sudden (and, as it turned out, t

Assisted by her daughter, Daisy Rubiera Castillo, the author recounts her life as a black woman struggling with prejudice and change in Cuba over the span of 90