Daughter of Ceará's intellectual elite, she grew up as an only child surrounded by books and stories. She experienced the terrible droughts of the northeastern hinterlands up close, which inspired her first book, O Quinze (The Fifteen), written at the age of 15 under the light of a lantern. A columnist for decades at important Brazilian newspapers and a translator of classic novels, she didn't consider herself a writer, but rather a political animal. It is from her proximity to this world of politics that the book João Miguel emerges. She was the first woman be a part of the Brazilian Academy of Letters. She was an enthusiast of the feminist movement, as reflected in Memorial de Maria Moura, Dôra, Doralina and As Três Marias (The Three Marias). She did hands-on work on her farm, where she enjoyed her three favorite things: a porch, a hammock and a small lake.
—HBO Latin America