by José Saramago · Alfaguara. · tapa dura · ISBN 9788420400556
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«Memorial del convento» is the historical novel by José Saramago, published by Alfaguara in hardback (398 pages, in Spanish).
The action takes place in 18th-century Portugal under the reign of John V, intertwining the construction of the Mafra convent with the story of Baltasar, a one-handed soldier, and Blimunda, a woman with visionary gifts. The novel portrays a society marked by religiosity, absolutism and the Inquisition, combining historical recreation with fable and love.
The Spanish edition, translated by Basilio Losada, is based on the original Portuguese novel Memorial do convento, first published in 1982.
Aimed at readers of historical fiction and those who appreciate the prose of José Saramago.
José de Sousa Saramago was a Portuguese writer. He was the recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature for his "parables sustained by imagination, compassion and irony [with which he] continually enables us once again to apprehend an elusory reality." His works, some of which can be seen as allegories, commonly present subversive perspectives on historic events, emphasizing the theopoetic human factor. In 2003 Harold Bloom described Saramago as "the most gifted novelist alive in the world today" and in 2010 said he considers Saramago to be "a permanent part of the Western canon", while James Wood praises "the distinctive tone to his fiction because he narrates his novels as if he were someone both wise and ignorant."
