Near to the Wild Heart is Clarice Lispector’s first novel, which she published in her early twenties. Lispector kept showing up everywhere I looked, including this video about how people are moving from self-help to fiction. The creator walks into a new suburban Barnes & Noble and finds a whole shelf of Lispector.
I have a few of her books on my list, including Água Viva, The Passion According to G.H., and A Breath of Life. Starting with her first one seems right.