Lisboñ, Dec. 9, 2025 (Lusa) - The writer Clara Pinto Correia has died at the age of 65, the publisher Exclamação, which published her last book, "Antares", in June last year, confirmed on Tuesday without giving further details.
According to the newspaper Correio da Manhã, Clara Pinto Correia, who had been away from the media for some years, was found dead at her home in Estremoz.
A writer, biologist and university professor, the author of the novel "Adeus Princesa" (Goodbye Princess), published at the age of 25, stood out in both science and literature, having also been a columnist, journalist, presenter and even an actress in the film "Kiss me" (2004) by António Cunha Telles.
She graduated in Biology from the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon in 1984. She obtained her PhD in Cell Biology in 1992 from the Abel Salazar Institute of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Porto. However, she was already a member of the teaching staff at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon, in the area of cell biology, histology and embryology.
She lived in the United States, where she continued her studies, conducted research and published scientific works, returning to Portugal in 1996 to devote herself to university teaching.
Alongside biology, a field she fell in love with as a child while living with her parents in Angola, Clara Pinto Correia developed a prolific career as a writer.
Going far beyond scientific books, Clara Pinto Correia soon began to devote herself to literature, publishing the book "Anda uma mãe a criar filhas para isto" (A mother raises daughters for this) at the age of 23, in partnership with other writers.
Two years later, she published what would become her best-known novel, "Adeus, Princesa" (Goodbye, Princess), which had a major impact on critics at the time, who classified it as "one of the notable books of 1985".
"Ponto Pé de Flor" (Flower Foot), "A Mulher Gorda" (The Fat Woman), "Domingo de Ramos" (Palm Sunday), "Clonai e Multiplicai-vos" (Be Fruitful and Multiply), "A Ilha dos Pássaros Doidos" (The Island of Crazy Birds), "A Deriva dos Continentes" (The Drift of the Continents) and "Mais que Perfeito" (More than Perfect) are just some of the titles among the almost fifty she published.
For many years, she was a prominent public figure in Portugal, both for her works and for the way she combined science, literature and communication, but also for her media presence.
However, she would suffer a fall from the media spotlight to a life of personal and professional difficulties, losing her job and facing financial problems, forcing her to leave her long-time home in Sintra.
Clara Pinto Correia told her story in an interview with Sábado magazine in January 2025: "I was left without a job, without any kind of work. It took almost two years before I started receiving unemployment benefits. In the queues at Social Security, they looked at me askance. My landlady in Penedo [near Colares, Sintra] served me with an eviction notice. I had been renting the house from her for 30 years and got on very well with her."
In 2003, she was accused of plagiarism in relation to an opinion piece published in Visão magazine, to which she responded at the time by saying she didn't even know what they were talking about.
Last year, she published Antares, a novel that takes place over a single night, under the constant glow of the red star that gives it its name, which the author herself says she wrote as a "message of hope," so that "people would not forget all the good things that life has offered them."
AL/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
