ENGLISH
Laura Conrado is the 2012 Jovem Brasileiro Award winner. Young adult fiction author, she wrote the acclaimed novels Freud, Help Me Out Here!, I Always Fall for the Wrong Guy, Shakespeare and Them, When Saturn Is Back, and Hooked on Myself. Laura Conrado is celebrated by readers and by the Brazilian media for addressing deep topics in a fun way. Her writing is representative of the yearnings of a generation of young adult women and addresses important issues such as emerging adulthood and women’s empowerment.
Contact
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Books
Freud, help me out
Catarina is a young woman who starts living by herself because of her new job. With a catastrophic love life and willing to take a fresh look at her choices, Cat seeks for help in psychotherapy. If it wasn’t for the painful process of getting to know herself and getting into a real relationship with her relatives, Catarina falls in love with her therapist. At the top of her anguish, the character turns to the father of psychoanalysis to get out of this one. Through Cat’s mess, you are able to laugh and to identify with the story of her deep journey for self-knowledge and self-acceptance. Freud, help me out is her first novel for the young audience. The book was released in April 2012, by Novo Século Publisher. The book won media attention and readers, who enjoy and identify themselves with the characters. Three months after the release, the book was published in a second edition, in the most important seal of the Publisher and with great public acceptance.
I just keep dating the wrong guys
Priscila is a 14 year-old teenager who, just like any other girl, wishes to have a boyfriend. The problem is she collects affairs with impossible guys, committed ones, and who don’t take anything seriously. But then, at her school, appears Cristiano, a hot guy with dimples with whom Pri falls in love with. She does everything to get Cris’ attention with the help from her inseparable friends: Ana Luiza, Julia and Rafaela. However, the need to show herself as perfect starts to harm at school and makes her fight with one of her best friends. To make it even worse, Pri’s effort to please him seemed to have no effect, after all, the boy kept disappearing. Upset, she asks her mother for help, who takes her to psychotherapy. At the couch, she discovers that maybe it’s not the wrong guys, but herself. From then on, Pri confronts some of her childhood sorrows, the intense (and tense!) relationship with her father and her personal idea of love. It starts, then, a change process on her way to face life itself, free from the sorrows and fictional hopes. With tenderness and good humor, the first book from the teen series of Freud, help me out! approaches self esteem, parent-children relationship and the growth to make good choices.
Freud, get me through!
Letting go of platonic affairs and becoming an adult is not easy. But, to all of life’s neurosis there is Freud. And does Cat know that! After falling in love with her therapist and going through misadventures that have conquered different types of readers at Freud, Help me out!, Catarina, now, faces a series of discoveries about herself and the world. On a period that she spends abroad and facing new opportunities, loves and friends, Cat finds out that, even though distant, unsolved feelings can be present. She confronts betrayal, insecurity, doubts and risks from her adult choices before money, sex and love. With the same emotion and humor, once again, Cat goes to the father of Psychoanalysis to go through the challenges of adult life.
When Saturn returns
The life of press secretary Déborah Zolini is on a steady course. She’s been dating her boyfriend for 4 years and had the same job since graduation. She dreams of the day she’ll leave home to walk down the aisle with the love of her life, Sergio, and the day the soccer club where she works will climb to the first division. As her 29th birthday approaches, Déborah meets a mysterious woman in Chile who announces her approaching Saturn Return – event when, according to astrology, the planet Saturn returns to the same place in the sky as when the person was born, normally every 29 years. During this process, changes happen in the name of maturity, sometimes painful. The event coincides with the proximity of the person’s 30th birthday, commonly known as the first life crisis. Upon returning to Brazil, Déborah meets Henrique, a man who fascinates her and makes her question the stability of her relationship and of her job as a soccer team’s press secretary. Standing on the brink of a love triangle, Déborah faces the fears of a situation she’s always avoided so well.
Hooked on Myself
Victoria is a talented singer. Five years ago she made it into the top position, but now she is devastated. She is unemployed, had to move back in with her parents, and is now forced to accept Carol Laine’s triumphant career—the childhood friend and ex-musical partner who went solo and is becoming one of the most talked-about artists in Bahia. However, even Victoria trying to hide at all costs, Carol Laine finds her to make a proposal: get back together and participate in a reality TV show about her life, which would also mean to be close to Lucas, Carol’s cousin and manager with whom Victoria has been secretly in love for many years. Although it seems to be an unturndownable proposal, it is hard to get over the grudge, be in the shadow of Carol Laine, and face the setbacks of being famous: always be pretty and fit no matter what, cope with the media gossipers, deal with a mysterious stalker, and live with the endless question “Is self interest always behind a friendship?”. In the throes of much mixed feelings, Victoria will have to decide whether it is worth to get back to the world where egos seem to be in control. “There’s this moment when Victoria—the protagonist in this delightful story you are about to read—asks herself: “Oh, God… Is there anything more heartbreaking than a kiss dying on the cheek?” Hell yeah there is! Heartbreaking is to not read this soft, darn good, and fun book, smooth as the accent in Bahia. Heartbreaking is to not get darn curious about what will happen in the life of this girl we love from the beginning to the end. I just wanted to be Victoria’s best friend. I wanted to talk to her about love, and hang out, and give her some advice. I laughed with her. I cried with her. And I just want to go to Bahia tomorrow! Of course, with her!” Quote by brazilian best seller author Thalita Rebouças
Literary Friendship by Laura Conrado and Marina Carvalho
Gaby and Livia are inseparable friends who have been connected by the love for books and stories. Their dedication to literature led them to create “Literary Friendship,” a blog where they share with hundreds of followers their impressions on literary culture. Equal, but yet so different, Gaby and Livia have never expected to wish for the very same job position, in an important publishing house. And then, a rigorous selection process will depurate their friendship… Gaby is an art graduate student and a chaotic daydreamer. She loves to laugh, although she guarantees she’s a Japanese descendent with a well-trained mind. On the other hand, Livia is assertive, and has got well designed plans for her future, nevertheless she has been struggling to disguise her current dismay at life. Gaby is now living her “happy end” with Leo — their relationship is a romance real beyond the pages of a book. Livia dreams about living love just like her favorite characters. She has found a guy who meets her standards; however, it seems that he is not available — well, at least that is what it looks like. With her mind set on arts, Gaby faces financial trouble. But then, her heart is filled with hope when she suddenly finds a way out in something that seems to have popped out of a happy scene. There’s a position available at one of her favorite publishing houses; it is an ideal job to recover from her financial disaster and to be close to books. Livia’s life is written in pretty linear and well-knit chapters. One day, when she is feeling upset with how slow her life narrative flows, she hits a plot twist. There’s a position available at the best publishing house in the country; it is her dream job for which she has been preparing herself since the beginning of her career. Will their love for books, once the glue that held Gaby and Livia together, become the end of their literary friendship?
The Day After the Break-Up
Break-ups are democratic. They happen regardless of faith, gender, or race. It does not matter how educated you are, whether you commute walking or just bought ‘the car of the year.’ It reaches you and shakes your foundations. Getting ditched makes you world’s most typical woman, or maybe the worst one. I’m just like any other woman in the suburbs. And like all the ones living in fancy urban condos alike. We have all been given the brush-off—we have all survived it.” What if you were doomed to live the day after the break-up over and over again? Melissa, a twenty-three-year-old undergraduate dentistry student mysteriously relives the chaotic Sunday after Fred brakes up with her. With a quite special help, different from anything she had ever seen, Melissa faces the time loop spell to get rid of it, once she learns the lessons from each repetition.