by Jose Saramago · Tapa blanda · ISBN 9789720401816
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Memorial do Convento is a novel by Portuguese writer José Saramago, published in 1982. The story takes place in the 18th century during the reign of John V of Portugal and narrates the construction of the Convent of Mafra. Through characters such as Baltasar Mateus and Blimunda, Saramago explores themes of love, sacrifice, and the oppression of ecclesiastical and royal power. The novel is a critique of the society of the time and a reflection on the human condition.
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."
