A hora da Estrela

Novel written by ukrainian-brazilian author Clarice Lispector tells the story of a young poor girl who makes her living as a typist. She´s not good at all in it. But when she says "thank you" for the notice (getting fired) the boss feels a bit sorry and tells her not to fired her immediatelly. In about the middle of the text the reader gets to know the main character´s name, Macabéa.
This girl living in the slum of Rio de Janeiro, sharing a room with 4 Marias, is undernutrished, skinny, and not beautiful. And in addition she´s an orphan. Her parents died in her age of two and she was brought up by an aunt who´s manners weren´t kind to the child. Though Macabéa outwardly seems poor, badly situated and unhappy, inwardly she´s quite fine, kind of indifferent and seems not to know anything about her unhappiness, because she is not. She is inwardly free and despite the circumstances she´s enjoying the world, her life and with her small income she even enjoys her small shopping, e.g. a lipstick to look like her idol, Marilyn Monroe.