Beyond All Pity (Modern Society)
by Carolina Maria de Jesus

Written on scraps of paper picked from the gutters, this is the raw, three-year old journal of a black Brazilian woman living in the slums of Sao Paulo, fighting each day for survival for herself and her three illegitimate children, each born of a different father. With fierce and stark simplicity she tells of her filthy house in the "Favela", describes the hunger that invades every shack, driving her to hunt for paper and metal that brought just enough money to keep the family alive.