The Stone Raft Jose Saramago Harcourt, Brace and Company, U.S.A. 1995 This fantastic story, wherein the Iberian Peninsula breaks free from the mainland and sails away, took eight years to come out in English translation, the longest time of any of Saramago’s books. It was only once Blindness came out, three years after The Stone Raft, [...]
Baltasar and Blimunda Jose Saramago Harcourt Brace, U.S. 1987 Baltasar and Blimunda is set in Mafra, Portugal during the construction of the Convent of Mafra. It was the era of the Inquisition. Several historical characters are woven into the story, such as Domenico Scarlatti and aviation pioneer Father Bartholomeu de Gusmao. This novel received very [...]
Death With Interruptions Jose Saramago Harcourt, New York, 2008 This novel came out in England under the title Death at Intervals. It is quite unusual for books to come out under different titles in the same language, and this is the only Saramago novel to have done so. While this U.S. first edition is hardcover, [...]
Blindness Jose Saramago Harcourt Brace, U.S.A. 1997 This is probably Jose Saramago’s most famous novel for at least two reasons. One, the English translation came out less than a year before he won the 1998 Nobel Prize for Literature. Two, the 2008 film adaptation, which was the opener for that year’s Cannes Film Festival, has reignited [...]
The Double Jose Saramago Harcourt, U.S.A. 2004 The Double is the story of a man who sees his exact double in a movie that he rents and becomes obsessed with meeting him. It is an existentialist look at the nature of identity, as well as a great read and a fine example of Saramago’s fertile [...]
Death at Intervals Jose Saramago Harvill Press, London, 2008 Jose Saramago passed away in 2010, having written some thirty books. But this 1998 Nobel Prize winner did not see international fame until he was 60 years old. This is an interesting book for a number of reasons. Firstly, this British trade paperback is the true [...]
Seeing Jose Saramago Harvill Secker, London, 2006 Although it came out nine years after, Seeing is the sequel to Saramago’s 1997 novel Blindness, sharing some characters and taking place in the same unnamed country. In Seeing, most of the population casts blank ballots in the national elections, and the doctor’s wife from Blindness, the only person [...]
The Cave Jose Saramago Harcourt, U.S. 2002 The Cave is an excellent example of Saramago’s allegorical and magical style. It is based on the parable of the cave from Plato’s Republic, about a group of men chained for life facing the inside wall of a cave. Nobel laureate Saramago died recently, in June 2010. According to Wikipedia, [...]
Seeing Jose Saramago Harcourt Brace, U.S.A. 2006 Seeing is a sequel to Saramago’s best known novel Blindness. In Seeing, the post-Blindness populace of the same unnamed country cast blank ballots in their parliamentary elections. Saramago wrestles with some pretty heavy themes in this book. This stated first US hardcover edition came out shortly after the British [...]