Chasing Bohemia

Carmen is a jaded 28 year-old travel industry executive when she ditches her job in London and goes to Rio de Janeiro for a holiday. However, her dreary middle class life is swiftly turned upside down when she meets fiery Italian revolutionary Chiara, moves into a yellow mansion owned by a flamboyant, caftan-clad queen and falls in love with a local hustler. From there, Chasing Bohemia sets a cracking pace of melodrama that only a fantasy backdrop like Rio de Janeiro could sustain. Carmen's story winds its way through the anarchic backstreets of bohemian Rio, far from the sweeping beaches for which the city is more famous, and looks at the violence, unapologetic hedonism, and rampant infidelity that govern this far-flung paradise of the Latin tropics. Chasing Bohemia is a story about living recklessly and the surprising little truths about yourself you can discover through being immersed in poverty, isolation, and a culture that is not your own. "Carmen Michael's memoirs remind you of a way of life that makes you want to relive the golden years of European Bohemia..." - Director Stephen Hopkins "Vibrant, colorful and thoroughly entertaining... Chasing Bohemia is a delicious poolside read and a great introduction to the otherworldly, often violent extremes of Rio..." - CAA Creative Artists Agency Hollywood "An outstanding book about bohemian life in Rio... Always insightful, never self-indulgent, this is travel writing at its best' - Sydney Morning Herald "Well-realized and often highly amusing, Michael writes with pace and panache" - The Weekend Australian "A winning cocktail" - The Age.