Product Description
The brilliantly original achievement of Siege [Historia del cerco de Lisboa] is the comical, hesitant, and . . . powerfully erotic progress of the couple's mutual courtship. Saramago is one of Europe's most original and remarkable writers."-Richard Eder, Los Angeles Times Book Review ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Amor y Nación
En las dos novelas que he leído de Saramago dos mundos transcurren paralelos pero que se unen metafóricamente. En la "Historia del Cercode Lisboa" una historia de amor transcurre en la vida delprotagonista, un excelente corrector de pruebas de una gran editorial,mientras que descubre sus dotes de autor por impulsos de su jefa alescribir una historia alterada de la historia nacional de Portugal por unsimple no. Es una novela con suficiente ingenio e ironia que entrelaza lointencional al querer alterar la historia oficial con tal de hacerla másnacional y que aún dentro de los grandes relatos siempre subyace unahistoria de amor, que nos puede hacer pensar si el amor es algoindispensable para realizar grandes cambios, conquistas o revoluciones.Esta trama de la novela es muestra de un escritor compremetido con susideales, pensamientos y sentimientos; un buen narrador y escritor. ... Read more

Product Description
José Saramago viaja a Portugal. Conocer un país significa comprender, de la manera más exacta posible, su paisaje, su cultura y el pueblo que lo habita. Con un itinerario que, desde Trás-os-Montes hasta el Algarve y desde Lisboa al Alentejo, recorre todo el país, Saramago ofrece al lector en este Viaje a Portugal el auténtico rostro de una tierra inagotable. es la reproducción escrita de las múltiples impresiones recogidas por la sensibilidad de un viajero siempre atento a lo que ven sus ojos. Saramago intenta comprender con su obra la realidad de Portugal y descifrar al mismo tiempo su pasado. Leer este libro será una revelación para quienes desean conocer el augusto país vecino, y un auténtico placer de la memoria para quienes ya lo conocen y sin duda retornarán a él. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

the writerhasadiferenttipeofwritingaboutthe
hisquindofwritinghasaspecialwayofreferthe portuguese wayoflifeandcostumes. Alsoisknownbecausehedosen'tsubmet himselftothepriceofmoney ... Read more

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When the Iberian Peninsula breaks free of Europe and begins to drift across the North Atlantic, five people are drawn together on the newly formed island-first by surreal events and then by love. “A splendidly imagined epic voyage...a fabulous fable” (Kirkus Reviews). Translated by Giovanni Pontiero.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (23)

The Stone Raft
This book is one of Saramago's finest. As they say in the business, it's a real page-turner. Don't miss reading this delightful, imaginative tale. One more reason he is a Nobel prize-winner in literature. A gifted word-smith.

Very Saramago
I have enjoyed several of Saramago's books, particularly "Blindness" and "The Gospel According to Jesus Christ". The Stone Raft was a confusing novel, but Saramago is not a plain story writer. He has an unusual way of using words and phrases that can be both interesting and sometimes frustrating. However, it is impossible to not learn something from these novels. Particularly Saramago has a real command of words and, although there are some passages that may leave you feeling a little uncertain about the meaning. But Saramago is a true wordsmith. The characters are complex and there seems to be a common thread of man against himself or against nature. This is very true of the Stone Raft. Nature itself has caused a breaking away of a part of Europe. People are scared because the land is opening up and a peninsula is drifted away and people are fleeing. At the same time the main characters seem to be calm and life goes on as usual. I recommend that every true reader should read at least one of Saramago's books.

Disappointing
I was really disappointed in this book. It was like slogging through a swamp to get back to the same place you started. The story was a really interesting premise, but the discussion of politics and the destinationless and pointless journey bored me.I supposed there is some meaning somewhere in all the molecules of description, but my patience is too far gone to find it. I LOVED the Tale of the Unknown Island because it was direct but slow enough to keep me thinking there was something around the corner. This one just left me hanging.

Satisfying--a well-rounded allegory
I became a fan of Saramago's when I picked up "Blindness" two years ago. "The Stone Raft", though less sharp and not as emotionally wrenching as "Blindness," is nonetheless a well-crafted allegory.

It is a quiet study of national and individual identity, of loneliness and companionship. As the Iberian Peninsula splits from the European continent, scenes of fear, chaos and scrambling are juxtaposed with subtle episodes of the five main characters and how they come to meet each other.

The story is really about the interaction of these five characters (and the dog). The supernatural phenomenon of the continental split is merely a literary device Saramago uses to minimize extraneous details and heighten the strength, weakness, wisdom, and yearning of his characters. When I was reading the book, an image of a stage devoid of any props came into mind; set against this minimalist backdrop, every gesture, every word, every little thing they do or don't do resonates strongly with the readers.

There is a passage that, in light of what happened in France earlier this month, seems quite prophetic. Look for it.

Confession of humility of human beings at the extreme adversity
Like BLINDNESS, Jose Saramago nimbly spins off another what-if tale in THE STONE RAFT with a tinge of a political overtone between his native country and Europe. The Iberian peninsula simply breaks free from the European continent: drifting away at an awestruck speed of 750 kilometers a day, splitting, parching, stretching the earth and bringing down cables with it and sailing as if it is a gargantuan stone raft.

At the initial stage a most innocent crack manifests at the Spanish-French border and evolves into a 20-meter ditch into which a major river plunges down into an abyss like a waterfall. What follows is an inconsolable shudder of fear that sweeps through the peninsula and nearby Europe. Terror-stricken inhabitants begin to evacuate the region. No sooner than the news make headlines than hundred and thousands of tourists hastily cut short their vacations and fled.

All of the above is so quintessential of the Portuguese writer. But the charivari is too predictable and so tip-of-the-iceberg for an author who is down for delving in deeper meaning of the strange occurrence. Some decide not to leave and accept the event as an irreversible act of fate, a plausible demonstration of mother nature. Some see it as an imperious sign of destiny. Others opt for silence and conform to what future will bring. Among those who brave the danger are five strangers who find company and comfort with one another. A man who throws a rock far out to the horizon of sea. A man who charms a swarm of starlings. A man who is literally a human seismograph. A woman who draws an indelible line that splits the earth with a woodstick. A woman whose thread of her sock never exhausts.

Like in BLINDNESS, Saramago puts his characters face-to-face with an unusual predicament and the outcome of which forever changes their lives. THE STONE RAFT again serves as a steel proof and a confession of humility of human beings at the extreme adversity, which forces the strangers to reflect on their lives, especially their experience accumulated and the mistakes perpetrated.

The scope of this audaciously creative novel transcends the consequences of the unprecedented geological event. It does not make light of the panicky reactions, pandemonium, massive exodus, and the altered contested political spheres. But more profusely it examines the entwined fate of the five sang froid strangers whose surreal experience have conincided to the Iberian fracture. In the midst of risk-savvy milieu, the five recognize their inescapable fate that has overlapped. And as bureaucrats baffle and bungle at handling the crisis, they surrender to what best serves the deeper interest of humanity and human beings: carnal pleasure.

THE STONE RAFT is a passionate questing tale against the backdrop of a world that finds itself in a state of suspense, something that is ulterior to any human being.
... Read more

Product Description
According to the author, this book is like asecond reading of the Gospels, like a trip to the origins ofreligion. Saramago’s most controversial book.

Description in Spanish: El Evangelio según Jesucristo responde al deseo de un hombre y de un escritor de excavar hasta las raíces de la propia civilización, en el misterio de su tradición, para extraer las preguntas esenciales. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

El Evangelio según Saramago
Un día estaba caminando el escritor portugués por una calle, creo que de Sevilla, cuando al pasar por enfrente de un quiosco le pareció ver un curioso libro titulado: El Evangelio según Jesucristo, siguió caminando con el libro en la cabeza, al no poder quitárselo decidió regresar para comprar el libro, pero ya no estaba, o quizás nunca lo estuvo. Suficiente señal para Saramago para decidir que ese libro necesitaba ser escrito, y así lo hizo. El resultado, El Evangelio según Jesucristo, levantó enormes controversias en el mundo cristiano, y el elogio universal de la critíca especializada.

10 años después, cae este libro en manos de esta humilde venezolana, quien no puede evitar maravillarse y espantarse por esta lectura. El libro no debería titularse El Evangelio según Jesucristo, sino según Saramago, porque el gran protagonista de la obra, y sobre quien pesa todo el dilema moral de la culpabilidad, es el carpintero José. La vida de Jesús adulto ocupa menos de la mitad del libro, yse revuelve alrededor de la culpabilidad heredada de su padre por haber permitido la matanza de los inocentes en Belén. La prosa de Saramago es impecable y llena de humor, la impostación de problemasen la prehistoria cristiana que podemos pensar como contemporáneos como crisis existenciales, ataques de pánico, es realmente genial. La novela puede resultar a momentos demasiado irreverente para aquellos que a pesar de no ser cristianos practicantes, hemos nacido y hemos sido criados como católicos. Nuestra religión y la de nuestros ancestros es puesta en ridículo.Todo sea por amor a la literatura.

perturbador
espero que este comentario salga,el libro es perturbador y emocionante, es una perspectiva diferente de lo que pudo haber sucedido, claro que en cosas de la historia original tendremos que atenernos a hacer conjeturasbasadas en la biblia, ya que nadie mas narro esa historia y si asi fue, fuedesde un punto de vista muy diferente. el libro se deja leer, es ameno yentretenido, esta muy bien escrito y la historia de saramago, se sustentamuy bien.

luis mendez

Brillante!
Una perspectiva distinta de la vida de Jesus de Nazareth; una historia que pone a pensar a cualquiera que la lea, a preguntarse si esto o aquello de lo que dice Saramago pudo o no ser de esa manera.

Excelente! ...

perturbador
este libro, es perturbador, pero asi deben ser los libros escritos cuandon buscan indagar un tema hasta el fondo y en este caso el autor aunque fantasea a veces, nos presenta lo que podria haber pasado a grandes rasgosen la vida de jesus de la cual tenemos poca informacion a no ser la queesta en la biblia que lo muestra sin cara o rostro, desprovisto dedescripcion corporal, y con solo unos anos de su vida al descubierto. estanovela, nos muestra a jesus sintiendo miedo, dudas, en incluso en conflictocon sus hermanos,enganado por dios y por el diablo que rigen nuestrosdestinos y nos tienen como marionetas de su juego, cada uno necesitando delotro para poder subsistir. es un buen libro, aunque no se como lo tomara lacomunidad cristiana, no es para nada blasfemo. muestra a un hombre comosaramago, usando hasta el limite su libre albedrio para hayar lasrespuestas o si no al menos para indagar hasta el fondo de ellas. es unlibro escrito en una bella prosa, imitacion de la biblia y del lenguajepoetico, un poco barroco a veces, pero siempre amena e interesante

LUISMENDEZ

El Jesus como Hombre
Otra forma de leer sobre el Jesús como Hombre y sus relaciones con la familia y otros aspectos de su vida, nos ubica en una situación diferente tanto de la Iglesia Católica como de La Ultima Tentacióndel autor GriegoNikos Kazantzakis. Siempre que sale una historia de Jesús se presta anuevas interpretaciones de lo que pudo haber sucedido desde el punto devista Histórico. Tal vez solo las bibliotecas del Vaticano tengan un pocomas de la verdad. De todas formas narrativamente esta novela esexcelente! . ... Read more

Product Description
Que diablo de Dios es este que para enaltecer a Abel desprecia a Cain. Si en El Evangelio segun Jesucristo Jose Saramago nos dio su vision del Nuevo Testamento en Cain regresa a los primeros libros de la Biblia. En un itinerario heterodoxo recorre ciudades decadentes y establos palacios de tiranos y campos de batalla de la mano de los principales protagonistas del Antiguo Testamento imprimiendole la musica y el humor refinado que caracterizan su obra. Cain pone de manifiesto lo que hay de moderno y sorprendente en la prosa de Saramago: la capacidad de hacer nueva una historia que se conoce de principio a fin. Un ironico y mordaz recorrido en el que el lector asiste a una guerra secular y en cierto modo involuntaria entre el creador y su criatura. Book Trailer ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

thought-provoking and original with universal themes
My six-work title wraps it all up: Blindness is definitely worth reading, though at a time when you feel like reflecting about the futility of our existence and how fragile our entire system of well-being is. The reason that this novel is able to cross borders and appeal to an international audience is because it is a fable that demonstrates how mankind is walking a tightrope and the slightest mishap could throw us off-balance.While this is unlikely, it is an interesting study in that and how the instinct of survival makes man do the worst.I found it interesting that the story seems to take place in a rather small city in a somewhat traditional society (probably a good description of where saramago is from in portugal), yet despite this origin, the majority of the members of this society quickly lose all sense of decency, something i would expect more of people in a huge metropolis.

One word of caution, DO NOT READ THE ABOVE SYNOPSIS (AKA "REVIEW")...IT GIVES AWAY THE WHOLE STORY OF THE ENTIRE BOOK!i think that if you were to read that synopsis it would take a huge amount of pleasure out of reading the book, since it tells you absolutely everything but the very last five pages of the book.

To respond to some of the book's earlier critics, i read the novel in the original portuguese and found the language beautiful, but not "confusing" or "unusual"... the only strange factor is that it is written as a stream of consciousness with long paragraphs, and quotations are not set apart (but they are capitalized which makes it very easy to distinguish them).i don't know why, but i didn't find that hard to get beyond, and my portuguese is far from perfect...

In my opinion, the most interesting character is, of course, the woman who never loses her sight.she is an awesome metaphor for those enlighted few in today's world who have the luck to see the world for what it really is, yet it is in such a mess that there is very little that can be done.she can help an infinitessimally small fraction of the helpless lot around her, but it really doesn't even make a dent, despite the fact that she could probably be considered the most powerful person in the world.she herself seems helpless, almost useless...you sometimes want to grab her and tell her clean up her act and really start helping the people around her, but upon reflection you realize it is an insurmountable task.i think that the best part of the book is reflecting on her, why she acts the way she does, what she sees and what you would do if you were in her place.that is the message that reached me most, 'if you are able to see things that others cannot and do something about it, what is stopping you?'

One of the best books I ever read
Saramago is our first Nobel of Literature. When I read "Ensaio sobre a Cegueira" (Blindness as it was translated to english) he was not a Nobel Prize winner yet. It is not easy to begin reading Saramago. This book is one of his best. I couln't stop reading it, so I was awake until 5 am, until it was over... It takes all your attention and you don't want to stop!
Read it! ... Read more

Product Description
Saramago tells the story of a history professor that, by chance, discovers in a rented movie a man identical to him, and decides to go in search of him. This novel poses the essential questions of life and the search of one's own identity: What defines us as unique people? Can we assume that our voice, our characteristics, or even the smallest distinctive mark are not repeated in another person? In this book, Saramago once again explores the depths of the soul.

Description in Spanish: Saramago cuenta en este libro la historia de un profesor de historia que, por casualidad, descubre una grabacion en video de otro hombre igual que el, y decide salir en su busqueda. El hombre duplicado es una novela que se lee con la avidez de un relato de intriga pero que nos sumerge en las cuestiones esenciales de la vida y en la busqueda de la propia identidad. ... Read more

Product Description
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 person writes about their adult memoirs perhaps to say, 'Look how important I am'. (...) So, I focused on the years from four to fifteen.'' Jose SaramagoDescription in Spanish:''Me interesa conocer mi relacion con ese nino que fui. Ese nino esta en mi, siempre ha estado y siempre lo estara.Un adulto escribe memorias de adulto, acaso para decir: ''Miren que importante soy''. He hecho memorias de nino, y me he sentido nino haciendolas; queria que los lectores supieran de donde salio el hombre que soy. Asi que me centre en unos anos, de los cuatro a los quince''.Jose Saramago ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

The seedling of a great writer and man
I was very fortunate to attend a summer workshop given by Saramago in Universidad Menéndez Pelayo in Salamanca, Spain, in 2001. I had only read Ensayo sobre la Ceguera then, and his short stories. I was hooked. I found in the classroom that he is an even better speaker. Very engaging, down to earth, witty and profound, all at once. Although I admire his style and his quality as a human being, I have found some of his titles cumbersome to read. His lack of "proper" punctuation (which he has turned into a style) can be difficult to read when the book is long and the subject deep.
This book is open, honest, written without giving himself airs, and is like catching glimpses of his past. He doesn't write his memoirs in exact chronological order, but his writing is like that ... it flows. His wife, Pilar del Río is his translator from Portuguese to Spanish and she does a good job of that.
I read the book because I am going to review it for a newspaper and write an article about him and all I can say is: I enjoyed reading about the seedling of a great writer and man.

Beautiful
Saramago's style is just delicious, and he tells his life like a tale. Humble, too humble even for a nobel prize winner, and admirably humble in comparison to his homologues.
If you know Saramago, you will not be disappointed by this autobiography (with pictures in the end.)If you don't know him yet, this is an excellent piece to start. ... Read more

Product Description
José Saramago was eighteen months old when he moved from the village of Azinhaga with his father and mother to live in Lisbon. But he would return to the village throughout his childhood and adolescence to stay with his maternal grandparents, illiterate peasants in the eyes of the outside world, but a fount of knowledge, affection, and authority to young José. 

Shifting back and forth between childhood and his teenage years, between Azinhaga and Lisbon, this is a mosaic of memories, a simply told, affecting look back into the author’s boyhood: the tragic death of his older brother at the age of four; his mother pawning the family’s blankets every spring and buying them back in time for winter; his beloved grandparents bringing the weaker piglets into their bed on cold nights; and Saramago’s early encounters with literature, from teaching himself to read by deciphering articles in the daily newspaper, to poring over an entertaining dialogue in a Portuguese-French conversation guide, not realizing that he was in fact reading a play by Molière. 

Written with Saramago’s characteristic wit and honesty, Small Memories traces the formation of an artist fascinated by words and stories from an early age and who emerged, against all odds, as one of the world’s most respected writers.

Product Description
Saramago has lived in Lanzarote, Spain, since1993. Following a suggestion of his family's, Saramago startedcompiling an account of his daily life. More than a mere gathering ofmemories or reflections, this book explains the reasoning behind hiscontrovertial opinions. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Not as illuminating as his novels, but an interesting read
Saramago has become one of my favorite writers ever since I read "Blindness."After that novel, I read "The Gospel According to Jesus Christ," "The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis,"and "Baltasar and Blimunda," all beautifully translated byGiovanni Ponteiro.It is therefore not surprising that I wanted to learnmore about the author of those excellent novels."Cuadernos deLanzarote" provided me with the opportunity of learning more aboutSaramago: his defense of the Portuguese language, his love for Lanzarote,his compassion for stray dogs, his perception of history, his hatredtowards the homogenizing European Union, his political postures.I have toadmit, however, that I became somewhat impatient at times with his emphasison literary prizes (especially the Nobel prize), but I can excuse him onlybecause from the very beginning he warns the reader that he would indulgein narcissistic exercises.Those who like Saramago's writing will findvalue in this delightful book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Plato's Cavern Myth meets Brave New World
Saramago at his best! As most of what I have read from Saramago, this book is superbly written.One would never imagine that a novel written in a sort of "stream of consciousness" form, would be plesant and absorbing.

The plot and characters are absolutely universal.The story could have taken place anywhere in the world, in the not so distant future, where man is living the desolate life he created for himself.

Freedon is restricted, dreams are non-existent, and everything is colored in different shades of gray.

Even though at first this may seem like a very sad book, it does have its silver lining:we still have a chance to make the world whatever we want it to be.

Finally, a comment about the main character, Cipriano Algor:Suffice it to say he generates a very strong passion....

Not Saramago's Best
I had the honor of meeting José Saramago at a book-signing in Lisbon's Chiado district shortly after he won the Nobel Prize in 1998. At the time, I wondered if receiving the prize would cause my favorite novelist to sit back and write nothing worthy of note, or nothing at all.

Fortunately, "The Cavern" bears the earmarks of earnestness, diligence, and love of the Portuguese language that characterize Saramago's earlier works. But as a novel it's disappointing. The characters are ordinary and there's not much of a plot.

The central theme of "The Cavern" is that a giant, impersonal, and arrogantly managed shopping center, the Centro, is spreading like an oil slick and sucking the commercial life out of the region. The main character, Cipriano Algor, an artisan potter living in a rural hamlet and eking out a living selling dishes to the Centro, is one of the shopping complex's victims. The Centro treats its suppliers ruthlessly: work with us according to the one-sided terms we impose or we'll dispense with you; and we'll dispense with you anyway when you're no longer useful to us. And the Centro no longer wants to sell Algor's stoneware; its customers prefer plastic tableware that's cheaper and less breakable.

Thus, much of the novel consists of the petty indignities the Centro visits on the desperate and humiliated Algor, a situation complicated by the fact that Marçal Gacho, Algor's live-in son-in-law, is a security guard for the Centro and wants to move there with his wife Marta.

There's a plot there, but it's thin, and it's stifled by overlong narratives, asides, and commentaries that dominate the novel. "The Cavern" is like an opera with much singing and little action. Indeed, few events disturb the novel's languor until the final 35 or so pages of the 350-page-long Portuguese version. And there's little that's compelling about Cipriano Algor, Marçal Gacho, Marta, or the family dog, Achado. They're all nice and all without depth. (And incongruously for such uneducated folk, they often speak the king's Portuguese.) Algor is a stiff, diffident and lonely widower whose inability to act on his interest in Isaura, the widow across town, exasperates the reader. Saramago relies heavily on the family dog for character development (a danger sign), extolling Achado's virtues. But in the end, Achado's ordinary canine behavior fails to inspire interest in itself or to illuminate its owners' personalities.

Moreover, some of Saramago's commentaries are trite and cranky; they lack the acuity of the sketches of human behavior and travails that enliven other Saramago novels. Algor, his family, and his dog are portrayed as the salt of the earth, rather like the Joads in John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath." The conflict between Algor and the arrogant Centro is an allegory for Saramago's dislike of globalization and the liberalization of the world economy--a dislike he made clear in 1998, when he argued, "Injustices multiply, inequalities become worse, ignorance grows, misery spreads. The same schizophrenic humanity able to send instruments to [Mars] to study the composition of its rocks witnesses indifferently the deaths of millions from hunger. . . . Governments fail to do [their duty], because they don't know how to, because they can't, or because they don't want to. Or because those who effectively govern the world don't let them: the multinational and intercontinental corporations whose power, absolutely undemocratic, has reduced almost to nothing what once remained of the ideal of democracy."

In sum, Saramago stands with the protestors of Seattle, Quebec City, and Genoa. His worldview may stem from the degrading poverty and oppression his grandparents experienced in rural Portugal (see his Nobel Prize acceptance speech). Yet if "The Cavern" were less rigid, it would acknowledge that the same liberalization that creates the Centro should permit Algor (with the help of a government economic-development agency) to leave behind the Centro's nouveau-riche customers and haughty management for the armies of foreign tourists who want to buy handmade Portuguese stoneware, or to sell his goods over the Internet to collectors in Montreal, Adelaide, and Sapporo. Algor is simply trying to sell in the wrong place, and it's not the Centro's fault if it rebuffs him, though it may point to flaws in the Centro's marketing strategy. (On the last point: Saramago's portrayal of the Centro is unrealistic. He presents it as omnipotent and destined to be unbound by time. But the Centro's rigidity and pomposity would appear to consign it to the impermanence of Percy Bysshe Shelley's Ozymandias, fated to become "the decay / Of that colossal wreck . . ." "[h]alf sunk" amid "[t]he lone and level sands . . . ."

It's worth noting that Portugal, like Ireland, has been a European economic success story. According to a Portuguese government report, "Between 1986 and 2000 the Portuguese economy grew by 3.6% per annum, compared with 2.5% for the EU [European Union]. . . . Real GDP growth averaged 5.0% per annum in 1986-90, compared with 3.3% for the EU as a whole, and was the highest in the EU and second highest in the OECD during that period. Growth slowed to 1.7% during 1991-95 in response to a deteriorating European business cycle, but still exceeded the EU average of 1.5%. Portugal pulled ahead in subsequent years, and growth of 3.4% in 1996-2000 was above the EU average of 2.6%." Accompanying that growth, new shopping centers like Lisbon's Amoreiras and Columbo malls have emerged. They have been very popular, and have coincided with a decline in some traditional business districts. Yet Portugal hardly seems economically, socially or culturally the worse for these changes, Saramago's lament notwithstanding. The country was markedly better off in those respects in 1998 than it was when I first visited it in 1992.

My recommendation: if you're a Saramago fan, you may enjoy "The Cavern." But if you're new to him, start by reading one of his better novels, like "The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis," "Blindness," or "All the Names."

La Caverna is brilliant
Do you ever feel like the world around you, the concrete and steel world, has wrapped you in its austere façade? Do you ever feel like the beauty of individuality is hidden in a world that cares not for the human spirit but for the technological advancement of society? Do you ever feel like you would love to embrace your talent for art and carry out the tasks that enhance your reason for existence, but you find that your job at the big corporation consumes all your time and energy? Do you ever feel threatening fear that your abilities may become obsolete and that society may dispose of you at any moment? Saramago's Characters in La Caverna feel like this when they find out that the corporation that buys their ceramic pottery and sells it to the public, will no longer purchase their obsolete products. The book's captivating flow of occurrences unleashes a series of thoughts in the characters' minds as to existence and the due respect for love and life in general. Great book. Once you start reading it, you will not put it down until it is finished.

retrato de un mundo globalizado
La Caverna José Saramago

Carta del nieto de Cipriano Algor encontrada en la sala de su casa y dirigida a sus padres.

Un día desperté a la luz de las estrellas, me encontré perdido en un mar de gente que pasaba a mi lado, todos con la vista puesta en algo. Y así, caminante errante, partí sin rumbo en busca de una salida. Pero salida hacia donde? No estaba dentro de la vida misma. Como era posible escapar a la vida, vivir otra existencia fuera de la mía, de vagabundo errante por el mundo. Vi que podía ver cosas que los demás no podían, pero el mundo era tan inmenso que me costaba trabajo creer que la única persona que pudiese ver las cosas tal y como son, o tal y como yo creía que eran era yo. Por eso era un inadaptado, un paria dentro del grupo social en el cual vivía, un loco u n alienado, un tonto, un holgazán. Me pasaba los días tratando de encontrar una salida mientras los demás se pasaban la vida disfrutando, absortos en la visión de lo que ellos creían que era la felicidad extrema, la dicha, la pasión, el amor. Peroyo sabia que había algo mas allá de las cosas y tenia que averiguarlo. Por fin con paciencia e ingenio logre encontrar en uno de los pisos altos de la edificación una grieta que me condujo al mundo externo. Mi impresión fue tal que no pude dejar de lanzar un grito de libertad. Durante tanto tiempo había vivido encerrado en ese centro que era el mundo, con sus colegios, iglesias, tiendas, con su aire acondicionado y sin mas luz que aquella artificial que iluminaba como un eterno sol y que cuando era niño había confundido con lo que mis padres habían llamado estrellas. Pero ahora era libre. Decidí dejar el centro y nunca mas volver, iría por la carretera en busca de mi abuelo Cipriano, quien según la leyenda había dejado el centro en sus inicios y se había ido a vivir lejos, como en otro mundo, un mundo donde el sol no estaba solo en los libros de historia; donde el agua corría libremente en ríos; donde las estrellas brillaban verdaderas en la noche; y donde la vida, a pesar de ser mas rustica, era mas vida, más humana, sin mecanizaciones de ningún tipo. Por fin después de tanto tiempo, era libre.

Esta situación orwelliana que se describe en la novela de Saramago, es el desplazamiento del hombre por sus maquinas. Como el centro comercial deja de ser una estructura al servicio del hombre para pasar a ser una estructura con hombres a su servicio. El pequeño negocio de Cipriano Algor es dejado a un lado y este debe tomar la difícil situación de irse a mudar en el centro, donde todo es artificial, irreal y risible, pues de lo sublime a lo ridículo solo hay un paso. La novela esta escrita de forma compacta, con todos los párrafos representando sin divisiones, pensamientos, comentarios, diálogos y demás, en lo que para quien no ha leído a Saramago antes es un poco confuso su estilo, pero es la mejor manera de escribir, pues no pierde su fuerza narrativa, deteniéndose a poner excesivos signos de puntuación. En ese sentido comparto con él la manía de escribir oraciones kilométricas a pesar de lo que dicen, que, después de ciertos párrafos, las ideas se confunden y la oración no se hace clara. Escribir para mí es un desafíodiario y creo que los lectores deben ser desafiados a seguir las pautas del escritor. La novela merece la pena y bien vale el esfuerzo de sus 454 paginas.

Luis Méndez.

EXCELENTE
Excelente relato! Saramago nos ilustra de manera que despertemos a la realidad.Que tenemos la capacidad de ver luz aun estando entre las sombras,como podemos seguir siendo lo que somos con el solo hecho de ver,analizar y no dejarnos deslumbrar.Es una critica a la llamada vida actual,de las grandes empresas y su virtual retorno a la esclavitud del cuerpo y el espiritu. ... Read more

Product Description
This volume compiles all the poetry ever written by the 1998 Nobel Prize in literature, since his first poems written at age 20 to those published in 1975 where we can already perceive the obsessions and subject matters that would become the medullar spine of his novels. In all of these love poems, philosophical poems, poems on literary figures and the contemporary world we can find hidden the narrator he is today. Description in Spanish: Este volumen de la Biblioteca José Saramago reúne, en edición bilingüe, toda la poesía producida por el Premio Nobel de Literatura 1998: desde los primeros poemas escritos a los veinte años al libro El año 1993, publicado en 1975, volumen donde se asoman ya los temas y obsesiones que llegarían a ser la columna vertebral de su obra novelística. Poemas filosóficos, poemas de amor, poemas sobre personajes literarios y sobre el mundo contemporáneo, en todos ellos se descubre la identidad del narrador de hoy. ... Read more

Product Description
The Iberian Peninsula splits off from the European mainland and floats away across the Atlantic, bearing its cargo of new Utopians. Those who travel on it, man and beast alike, are called to redefine themselves and their world in this novel which touches on the essential nerve of contemporary life. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Un Poema..... Justificacion de un premio nobel..
Considero este libro uno de las mejores novelas que he leido hasta ahora, sin duda una de mis favoritas.
Ricardo Reis, doctor de profesion y monarquista de conviccion, nace en Porto pero se exila en Brasil cuando cae la republica en Portugal y en ella se instala un regimen republicano. Ricardo Reis, poeta, escritor de bellisimas odas neoclasicas regresa a Portugal luego de varios años en el exilio.Alli se entera de la muerte de Fernando Pessoa...Puede sobrevivir Reis la muerte de su creador?Porque Ricardo Reis no es mas que uno de los homonimos del Poeta modernista Fernando Pessoa.Ficcion de la ficcion! Saramago reflexiona sobre la soledad, el reencuentro con uno mismo, las diferentes facetas que cada uno tiene.El libro tiene tonos surreales. En una de mis partes favoritas Ricardo Reis se encuentra con Fernando Pessoa. El resultado es uno de los mejores dialogos que he leido en una novela, sabio e inteligente con un increible uso del juego de palabras. Antonio Tabucchi una vez especulo cual fue el final de Ricardo Reis.Esta es la version de Saramago.Para entender mejor el libro y disfrutarlo a plenitud, les recomiendo leer sobre Pessoa y el uso de homonimos en su poesia, en especial los poemas de Lidia que escribe Ricardo Reis. ... Read more

Product Description
Jose Saramago es el escritor en lengua portuguesa mas famoso del mundo, candidato varias veces al Premio Nobel de Literatura. Sin duda, cuando escribe no tiene pelos en la lengua y, tal vez por ello, algun critico le ha llamado el Voltaire portugues. Alto, fotogenico, con pinta de actor, de ojos escrutadores, cordial, tierno y a la vez poseedor de una personalidad que impone, Saramago es un melancolico en la mejor tradicion lusa. No concibe el trabajo literario como un placer individual. Para el es algo que a veces resulta duro, casi dramatico. No entiende que un escritor pueda comprometerse solo con su texto y no con la sociedad en que vive. Con dicha actitud y ayudado de una imaginacion viva y flexible, ha creado un original universo novelistico, esencial para profundizar en las frustraciones de nuestro tiempo. Precisamente para hablar de el, de su ya larga historia, de lo que ama y desprecia, de lo que piensa sobre las cosas esenciales de la vida, de sus gustos, sus pasiones, su literatura, Juan Arias ha realizado esta larga conversacion con el en la paz de su isla encantada de Lanzarote, frente a ese Atlantico de las Canarias que es un reflejo de su personalidad: un mar fuerte y amable al mismo tiempo. ... Read more