Sérgio Rodrigues was born in Muriaé, Minas Gerais, Brazil, in 1962. He has lived in Rio de Janeiro since 1979, where he built his career as a journalist and writer. Sérgio has been a driving force in Brazilian journalism, and debuted as a fiction writer in 2000 with The Man Who Killed the Writer, book of short stories. His novel Elza: The Girl tells the poignant tale of a communist party leader's tragic love affair in 1935 with comrade Elza Fernandes, code-named "The Girl," an obscure real character in Brazilian history: a beautiful 16-year old who fell under suspicion of betraying the Party, and although the charge could not be proved, was sentenced to death by Luiz Carlos Prestes, the most eminent Latin American communist leader in the romantic era prior to the Cuban revolution. The novel has been featured in Machado de Assis Magazine.