José Saramago

"In this, his last novel, Saramago daringly reimagines the characters and narratives of the Bible through the story of Cain. Condemned to wander forever after he kills Abel, he is whisked around in time and space. He experiences the almost-sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham, the Tower of Babel, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Joshua at the battle of Jericho, Job's ordeal, and finally Noah's ark and the Flood. And over and over again Cain encounters...

A personal account by the late author traces his youth in Lisbon with his parents, marked by frequent visits to his wise grandparents in the village of Azinhaga, his older brother's tragic early death, and his initial encounters with literature.

"No creo que exista en el mundo un silencio más profundo que el silencio del agua. Lo sentí en aquella hora y nunca lo he olvidado". El silencio del agua es lo único que el protagonista de esta bella historia oye mientras espera junto al río. Espera, espera y espera el regreso del barbo para vengar su caña partida. Pero sabe que no será él quien cace al animal... Otro gran poético relato de José Saramago, acompañado por preciosas ilustraciones...

A mediados del siglo XVI el rey Juan III ofrece a su primo, el archiduque Maximiliano de Austria, un elefante asìtico. Esta novela cuenta el viaje p̌ico de ese elefante llamado Salom̤n que tuvo que recorrer Europa por caprichos reales y absurdas estrategias. El viaje del elefante no es un libro hist̤rico, es una combinaci̤n de hechos reales e inventados que nos hace sentir la realidad y la ficci̤n como una unidad indisoluble, como algo propio...

A boy finds a flower dying of thirst in an uncultivated, dry land. To save the flower, he goes throughout the world searching for water. The boy's family finds him sleeping under the enormous flower. When they realize what happened, the boy gains respect for the deed.

"The enchanting tale of an elephant, his keeper, and their journey through sixteenth-century Europe, based on a true story." (from the back cover).

Manual of Painting and Calligraphy was José Saramago's first novel. Written eight years before the critically acclaimed Baltasar and Blimunda, it is a story of self-discovery set in Portugal during the last years of Antonio Salazar's dictatorship. It tells the story of a struggling artist who is commissioned to paint a portrait of an influential industrialist. Disheartened by his squandered talent, the artist soon undergoes a creative and political...

A proofreader in a publishing house changes a word in a manuscript to make a history book read that a 12th Century battle was strictly a Portuguese victory, rather than a joint victory with the Crusaders. Instead of being fired the proofreader is commissioned to develop the idea into a novel. A study in historical revisionism.