In this fable by Nobel Prize winner Jose Saramago, the population of an entire town is suddenly stricken, one by one, with blindness. A "New York Times" Notable Book for 1998.
On the first day of the new year, no one dies. This causes consternation among politicians, religious leaders, and doctors. Among the general public, on the other hand, there is initially celebration: they have achieved eternal life. Then reality hits home, in this latest novel from the Nobel Prize-winning author.
Nobel Prize-winning writer José Saramago writes about his native Portugal as someone who loves it deeply and knows it intimately. Dipping into myth and history, he relates the country's past to its present--and speculates about its future--in an illuminating narrative that transcends the travel genre.
Saramago retells the Bible story, expanding on it with alternative versions of the official story and adding his own invented supernatural occurrences.
Nobel Prize-winning writer José Saramago creates a gentle and humorous story about an elderly potter, his daughter and son-in-law, the young widow who comes to live with them--and a dog. What begins with ceramic doll figures and some mysterious digging noises at their apartment building leads eventually to an unexpected upheaval in the lives of ...
From the Nobel Prize-winning author of "Blindness" comes this follow-up, set in the same capital city four years after being hit by an epidemic of blindness. What begins as a satire on governments and the sometimes dubious efficacy of the democratic system turns into something far more sinister.
Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Portuguese novelist Jose Saramago introduces Senhor Jos, a clerk in the city's Central Registry and collector of clippings of the famous and notorious, who becomes obsessed with a young woman after coming across her birth certificate.
Joana Carda scratches the ground with an elm branch, and the mute dogs of Cerbere begin to bark, portending doom. The earth cracks open and the Iberian peninsula separates from Europe, floating off into the Atlantic. People flee the coastal areas in a mass exodus, to wander, disoriented, across the drifting island's interior. Among them are a ...
In eighteenth-century Portugal, fifty thousand laborers carry stones on their backs across mountains to build the king's convent, a heretical priest devises a magic flying machine--the Passarola--and two lovers' dream of flight sets them apart.
When Raimundo Silva, humble proof-reader for a Lisbon publishing house, takes it upon himself to insert a negative into the sentence of a history book, he rewrites history. The effect of this act of insubordination is to make his editor, the voluptuous Dr Maria Sara, fall in love with him.
A small pottery shop, a gigantic business district. One world rapidly headed toward extinction, another which grows and multiplies within a mirrored maze where there appear to be no boundaries nor limits to false illusions. La caverna is the story of a family of potters who realize that their craft is no longer appreciated in such a fast-paced, ...
Set in Lisbon in 1936, this book follows the character of Ricardo Reis, a doctor who returns to his native Portugal after 16 years in Brazil. But what kind of doctor is he? Instead of receiving patients in his surgery he spends his time walking and reciting poetry, accompanied by a dead poet.
A terrifying allegory of the dark times of the new millennium. A driver waiting at a red light suddenly becomes blind. So does his wife and the doctor who examines them. They are the first cases of an "epidemic" of blindness. A magnificent parable of loss and disorientation and a vivid evocation of the horrors of the 20th century, Blindness ...
In a country whose name is not mentioned, something never before seen since the beginning of time happens: death decides to stop its unflagging track and people stop dying. From that moment on, the destiny of humankind will be to live eternally.
"The Gospel According to Jesus Christ is enough to assure Saramago a place in the universal library and in human memory."--The Nation. According to the author, 1998's Literature Nobel Prize Winner, this book is like a second reading of the Gospels, like a trip to the origins of religion.
An alienated history teacher named Tertuliano Máximo Afonso is watching a video one night when he spots an actor who looks exactly like himself, right down to the last little mole and scar. Becoming obsessed with the man, Afonso goes to frantic lengths to find out his name, watch all his movies, and finally seek him out. When he succeeds in doing ...
During the mid-sixteenth century, king John III of Portugal presented his cousin Maximilian, the archduke of Austria, with an Asian elephant. This novel recounts the epic voyage of Salomon the elephant, and the journey it undertook to satisfy royal whims. El viaje del elefante is a mix of real and imaginary facts that leads us to recognize reality ...
During the town elections of a nameless city, most of its inhabitants, by their own individual choices, decide to exert their voting rights in an unexpected way. The dirty and sneaky officials in power start making arrangements to eliminate the guilty parties; and if they cannot find any, they will have to make them up. The protagonists of this ...
La balsa de piedra parte de un audaz planteamiento narrativo. Una grieta abierta espontaneamente a lo largo de los Pirineos provoca la separacion del continente europeo de toda la peninsula Iberica, transformandola en una gran isla flotante, moviendose sin remos ni velas ni helices en direccion a sur del mundo, camino de una utopia nueva: el ...
Don Jos, the main character in this story by Saramago, is a lonely and insignificant government worker at the office of vital statistics. As an innocent pastime, he starts collecting news about the rich and famous. When he notices gaps and contradictions in the lives of these public figures, he decides to fix them by registering fantasy events in ...
An outstanding collection of award-winning books and authors Santillana USA has compiled a selection of the most popular books in Spanish under the Alfaguara imprint. The world-renowned authors cover a range of genres including novels, short stories, anthologies, and poetry. Exquisitely written, this short story is a delicious introduction to ...
Saramago portraits an imaginary encounter between Fernando Pessoa and Ricardo Reis, who venture back to Portugal after the establishment of the dictatorship of general Salazar. "The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis" describes the country during dictatorship and highlights views using Pessoa's poetic aspect which have long been forgotten in ...
A "brilliant...enchanting novel" (New York Times Book Review) of romance, deceit, religion, and magic set in 18th Century Portugal. In the midst of the terrors of the Inquisition, a seemingly mismatched couple discovers the wonders of love. This rich, irreverent tale, full of magic and adventure and graced with extraordinary historical detail, is ...
Saramago writes about his childhood: some parts in Azhinaga, the town where he was born, and other parts in Lisbon where he left to when he was two. With the poetic prose that characterizes him and without any trace of resentment, Saramago narrates the misery in which his family lived. Contains photos with comments made in his own handwriting. A ...
We guarantee every item's condition, as described on Alibris. If you are not satisfied that an item is as described, return your purchase for a refund.
