Conville & Walsh

In 2001, aged just 17, and from a middle class Brazilian family, Rachel Pacheco ran away from home, and in desperation became a call girl. Working under the name of Bruna Surfinstinha from a brothel in Rio – the name means ‘Bruna, the Surfer Chick’ – she also began a web diary at http://www.brunasurfistinha.com which soon became Brazil’s leading blog, averaging 15,000 hits a day and detailing her experiences with over 1,000 male and female clients.

Three years later, and with the blog having received so much attention, Bruna decided to turn it into a book, and so was born THE SWEET VENOM OF THE SCORPION. With its candid mixture of sex advice for women – specifically so they can avoid their men becoming the clients of prostitutes – and stories of what her three years as a working girl entailed, the book rocketed into the Brazilian bestseller lists, going on to sell a quarter of a million copies. And at much the same time as this, Bruna was thankfully able to quit her working life to settle down with a 30 year-old businessman. She has quickly become one of Brazil’s leading celebrities, appearing regularly on television and in Brazil’s print media.