Covers the first year following the author's rise to fame. This title recounts her struggles with celebrity, middle-class expectations, and the racial and social tensions her success had exacerbated. It tells that the fall back into poverty is as easy as the struggle to escape it is difficult.

Robert M Levine is a professor of history and Director of Latin American Studies at the University of Miami. He is the author of The Life and Death of Carolina Maria de Jesus.

Melvin S. Arrington, Jr. is a professor of modern languages at the University of Mississippi.