Chasing Bohemia
living recklessly in Rio de Janeiro
Carmen Michael

Carmen Michael was a jaded young travel industry executive when she ditched her job and moved to the Rio de Janeiro looking for complete immersion in the seedy and sexed up city. A brush with a fiery Italian trust fund baby called Chiara inspires her to make risky solo mission to a rodeo in the outback of Brazil. When she returns, she moves into a crumbling yellow mansion with a flamboyant caftan clad queen called Gustavo, flirts with Brazilian high society, falls for a hustler, runs away from him to Buenos Aires and then runs back only to fall in love with a Brazilian samba musician.

Set in the anarchic backstreets of bohemian Rio, far from the sweeping beaches for which the city is more famous, Carmen takes us deep into Rio’s extraordinary musical culture, unapologetic hedonism and rampant infidelity.

Reviews

This is great travel writing; never self indulgent and always insightful
- Sydney Morning Herald

If ever there was a book that was going to make you pack in your job and move to Brazil, this would be it
- Newsmail

Published

Australia 2008 (Scribe), Hungary 2009 (Jaffa Kiado), Film Option 2008 (Hollywood's Schmaguuli)

Carmen Michael

Carmen Michael first visited Brazil in 2003 for a holiday, and has been there ever since. After completing a degree in economics at the University of Sydney, she worked in the travel industry checking out every corner of the globe. She contributed to Lonely Planet’s Rio de Janeiro Guide, set up www.womantraveller.com and also writes for Qantas magazine. Carmen lives in Santa Teresa, Rio de Janeiro. Chasing Bohemia is her first book.