by José Saramago · Caminho · tapa blanda · ISBN 9789722100267
VAT included
Hamelyn quality guarantee · checked and verified, or your money back
«Memorial do Convento» is the historical novel by Portuguese writer José Saramago, published in 1982 by Caminho in paperback (496 pages, in Portuguese).
Novel set in 18th-century Portugal, during the reign of John V, in which the construction of the Mafra convent intertwines with the story of Baltasar, a one-handed soldier, and Blimunda, a woman with powers, and in which a priest determined to fly also takes part, combining historical chronicle with fantastical elements.
It was awarded the Prémio Literário Município de Lisboa (1982) and the Prémio PEN Clube Português da Novelística (1983).
A work for those who enjoy historical fiction, magical realism and Portuguese literature in the original version.
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."
