If you’re inspired by tales of South America, check out Carmen Michael’s Chasing Bohemia: A Year of living recklessly in Rio to get the skinny on what it’s really like! Also, just announced the book is set to make it on the big screen with Director Stephen Hopkins turning it into a film with producition starting the middle of next year. 

When 28 year old travel industry exec, Carmen Michael, ditches her glossy London job to holiday in Rio de Janeiro she finds more than the brochures can describe.

Scribe Publications describes the book as, “In the forgotten bairros of old Rio, Carmen embraces Latin American life with all its colour, danger, and unpredictability. She flirts with Brazilian high society, collaborates with an Italian revolutionary, walks straight into the well-sprung trap of a local hustler, runs away from him to Buenos Aires and then runs back — only to fall for a samba musician from the local bohemian quarter.

Chasing Bohemia unveils the real Rio, winding its way through the anarchic backstreets of bohemian Rio, far from the glitzy beaches for which the city is more famous. Chasing Bohemia looks at the extraordinary musical culture, unapologetic hedonism, and rampant infidelity that rule this far-flung paradise of the tropics.

Written with great vivacity, Chasing Bohemia is a story about living for the day — and the surprising little truths about yourself you can discover through being immersed in poverty, isolation, and a culture that is not your own.”


About the Author: Carmen Michael first visited Brazil in 2003 for one week, and has been there ever since. After completing a degree in economics at the University of Sydney, she worked in the travel industry and travelled extensively. She contributed to Lonely Planet’s Rio de Janeiro Guide, conducted radio interviews for the ABC and has written articles across a wide variety of subjects, including travel, politics, economics, and the arts. Carmen lives in Santa Teresa, Rio de Janeiro.

Read an interview with Carmen on TNTdownunder.com!

ExplorerGirls.com / Gemma Considine

Story/Photos Credit: Scribe Publications