Almost True

Talking animals take center stage—and explain the mysteries of the world!—in this zany, Kipling-esque picture book from literary great Clarice Lispector for ages 5 to 9.

Have you ever wondered why birds have no teeth? Or why sometimes black clouds do not rain? Ulisses the talking dog has the answers!

“Once upon a time: me!” announces the narrator of this tall clever tale about a talking dog named Ulisses, his owner Clarice, a rooster named Evidio, a hen named Edissea, and a greedy fig tree. The narrator is none other than Ulisses the dog, and his story really gets started when a bad witch named Exelia floats into town disguised as a black cloud. The fig tree wants to get rich quick—and with the witch’s help, she hatches a dark plan to make Edissea and her fellow hens lay eggs all night long. But the plan backfires when the birds cluck and crow around the clock in protest, driving the fig tree to distraction.

In this madcap story by Clarice Lispector, one of the foremost writers of the twentieth century, animals are the master storytellers and the prime movers. As in a Rudyard Kipling Just So story, they help explain the mysteries of the world, such as why birds have no teeth. But dogs don’t know everything – for instance, how do you eat the fruit of the jabuticaba, the Brazilian grapetree? “You, kid, ask a grownup,” concludes Ulisses. Lispector's story is perfect for ages 5 to 9 years old.

Clarice Lispector was born in 1920 to a Jewish family in western Ukraine. As a result of the anti-Semitic violence they endured, the family fled to Brazil in 1922, and Clarice Lispector grew up in Recife. Following the death of her mother when Clarice was nine, she moved to Rio de Janeiro with her father and two sisters, and she went on to study law. With her husband, who worked for the foreign service, she lived in Italy, Switzerland, England, and the United States, until they separated and she returned to Rio in 1959. She died there in 1977. Since her death, Clarice Lispector has earned universal recognition as Brazil’s greatest modern writer.

Benjamin Moser is the author of Why This World: A Biography of Clarice Lispector, a finalist for the National Book Critics’ Circle Award and a New York Times Notable Book of 2009, and he has translated multiple works of fiction by Lispector, including The Hour of the Star and her Complete Stories. For his work bringing Clarice Lispector to international prominence, he received Brazil’s first State Prize for Cultural Diplomacy. His latest book, Sontag: Her Life and Work, won the Pulitzer Prize.

Carla Irusta is an artist and illustrator. She lives in Curitiba, Brazil.