is the "model" daughter: talented, studious, and a gifted pianist who dreams of studying in Vienna. Instead, she finds herself in a conventional marriage to Antenor, a man who sees her only as a domestic fixture.

Set against the vibrant, humid backdrop of 1940s and 50s Rio de Janeiro, Martha Batalha's debut novel—and its haunting cinematic adaptation—tells a story that is as much about the endurance of the female spirit as it is about the "invisibility" forced upon women by a patriarchal society. The Story: Two Parallel Paths

is the rebel. She elopes with a sailor, only to return years later—pregnant, abandoned, and seeking refuge.