An Apprenticeship or The Book of Pleasures (Penguin Modern Classics)

'One of the very great writers of the last century' Guardian

'Lispector had an ability to write as though no one had ever written before' Colm Tóibín

'He'd wait for her, she knew that now. Until she learned'

Lóri yearns for love yet is scared of herself, and of connecting with another human. When she meets Ulisses, a Professor of Philosophy, she is forced to confront her fears. As both of them will learn, to be worthy of another person, they must first be fully themselves. The book of which Clarice Lispector said, 'I humanized myself', An Apprenticeship is about the ultimate unknowability of the other in a relationship, and what it means to love and be loved.

Translated by Stefan Tobler
Edited by Benjamin Moser with an Afterword by Sheila Heti