Acknowledgements

To Joana Jabace, for the courage with which she told me her story and for the attention she gave to my insistence on the details.

To Leandro Sarmatz, for the enthusiasm and dedication with which he received this book.

To Dina Salem Levy, Paloma Vidal, Mirna Queiroz, Susana Moreira Marques, Eric Nepomuceno, Elisabete Pinto Guedes, Maria Mendes, Bárbara Manfroni Souza, Camila Pitanga, Simone Elias, Sandra Rocha, Lucia Murat, Pedro Rivera, Anabela Mota Ribeiro, Patrícia Melo, Olivia Byington, Antonia Pellegrino, Fabiana Díaz, Claudia Lage, Julián Fuks, Pilar del Río, Adriana Varejão, João Constâncio, Jordi Roca, and Nicole Witt, who, each in their own way, helped make these pages exist.

To Virginia Woolf, W.G. Sebald, Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen, Carlos Castañeda, and Franz Kafka, for the borrowed words.

To Pedro, with whom I share the beautiful and difficult moments of every book.

To Francisco and José, who have the luck of being Joana’s children.

To Nino, the nephew I wish was closer to me.

Once again, to Dina and Joana, for the day we decided to call ourselves sisters.