A coming-of-age story set in the punk rock scene of 1990s Brazil

What do you do when you feel like the whole world was designed without a place for you?

Told with humor, vulnerability, and a deep love for music, How to Be a Rockstar is a true story about growing up in Brasília in the 1990s — a time before the internet, before smartphones, before adulthood made sense.

At the center of the story is a teenager desperate to fit in, fall in love, start a band, and maybe become someone memorable. Between basement rehearsals, mixtape confessions, heartbreaks, schoolyard humiliations, long-distance romances, awkward family lunches, and a guitar that won’t stay in tune, this book captures the full emotional rollercoaster of adolescence.

Set against the backdrop of Brazil’s underground punk and indie rock scene, How to Be a Rockstar is a raw, funny, and nostalgic journey into the mind of someone who never quite knew the rules — but always played with heart. It’s a book about friendship, rejection, late-night phone calls, broken amps, and the strange magic of believing that music can save your life.

A real-life coming-of-age story for anyone who ever felt too intense, too sensitive, too loud, or too in love with the idea of love.

Because sometimes, trying to become a rockstar is just another way of trying to become yourself.