Synopses & Reviews
A Los Angeles Times Best Book
A New York Times Notable Book
"[The Cave] is yet another triumph . . . for Portugal's, or even the world's, greatest living novelist. Read it."-The Washington Post Book World
Cipriano Algor, an elderly potter, lives with his daughter Marta and her husband Marçal in a small village on the outskirts of The Center, an imposing complex of shops and apartments to which Cipriano delivers his wares. One day, he is told not to make any more deliveries. Unwilling to give up his craft, Cipriano tries his hand at making ceramic dolls. Astonishingly, The Center places an order for hundreds. But just as suddenly, the order is cancelled and the penniless three have to move from the village into The Center. When mysterious sounds of digging emerge from beneath their new apartment, Cipriano
and Marçal investigate; what they find transforms the family's life. Filled with the depth, humor, and extraordinary philosophical richness that marks each of Saramago's novels, The Cave is one of the essential books of our time.
"As with Proust, to be drawn into a Saramago sentence is to be drawn into a world that takes shape out of a maze. . . . His human voices wake us and we live."-The New York Times Book Review
JOSÉ SARAMAGO is one of the most acclaimed writers in the world today. He is the author of numerous novels, including All the Names and Blindness. In 1998 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. -Chicago Tribune
MARGARET JULL COSTA has established herself as the premier translator of Portuguese literature into English today, and her previous renderings of Saramago's novels are highly acclaimed.
Review
"A densely textured, wonderfully resonant reworking of Plato's allegory."
Review
"An unassuming tour de force."Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
Review
"A gripping, beautifully written, utterly enchanting, archaically romantic, and, at times, devastating take on ordinary people struggling to survive."
Review
PRAISE FOR THE CAVE
"Nothing about The Cave feels like the work of either an old man of 80 or a world-famous author playing it safe. . . . It is yet another triumph . . . for Portugal's, or even the world's, greatest living novelist. Read it."--The Washington Post Book World
"As with Proust, to be drawn into a Saramago sentence is to be drawn into a world that takes shape out of a maze. . . . His human voices wake us and we live."--The New York Times Book Review
Review
"We'll say it again: Saramago is the finest novelist, bar none."
Review
"Another masterpiece from a remarkable writer who really may be, as many readers believe, the greatest living novelist."
Review
"An unassuming tour de force."(,Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel,)
Review
What truly elevates-- is Saramago's style; this fantastically agile, irrepressibly funny, sympathetic, cerebral, and sometimes even corny voice."
Review
"Another masterpiece from a remarkable writer who really may be, as many readers believe, the greatest living novelist." (Boston Globe)
Review
"The teensiest bit of plot is meaningfully, accessibly stretched into something enormous."
Review
What truly elevates-- is Saramagos style; this fantastically agile, irrepressibly funny, sympathetic, cerebral, and sometimes even corny voice."(Christian Science Monitor)
Review
"Arguably the greatest writer of our time. He throw[s] a dazzling flash of lightning on his subjects."
Review
"Saramago's long fluid sentences, richly stocked with folk wisdom, lend his novels a rare quality of permanence."
Review
"An unassuming tour de force." Los Angeles Times Book Review
Review
"Loving collaboration that insists on the value of independence and a firm belief that art can't be separated from life."
Review
"A compassionate study of loyalty, love and the ways in which people face the forces trying to obliterate their spirit."
Review
"Saramago says he is really an essayist who took to writing novels. This is true. But the novels are masterly."
Synopsis
Cipriano Algor, an elderly potter, lives with his daughter Marta and her husband Marçal in a small village on the outskirts of The Center, an imposing complex of shops, apartments, and offices to which Cipriano delivers his pots and jugs every month. On one such trip, he is told not to make any more deliveries. Unwilling to give up his craft, Cipriano tries his hand at making ceramic dolls. Astonishingly, The Center places an order for hundreds, and Cipriano and Marta set to work-until the order is cancelled and the three have to move from the village into The Center. When mysterious sounds of digging emerge from beneath their apartment, Cipriano and Marçal investigate, and what they find transforms the family's life. Filled with the depth, humor, and the extraordinary philosophical richness that marks each of Saramago's novels, The Cave is one of the essential books of our time.
Synopsis
" The Cave] is yet another triumph . . . for Portugal's, or even the world's, greatest novelist. Read it." -- Washington Post
A genuinely brilliant novel." -- Chicago Tribune
Cipriano Algor, an elderly potter, lives with his daughter Marta and her husband Mar al in a small village on the outskirts of The Center, an imposing complex of shops and apartments to which Cipriano delivers his wares. One day, he is told not to make any more deliveries. Unwilling to give up his craft, Cipriano tries his hand at making ceramic dolls. Astonishingly, The Center places an order for hundreds. But just as suddenly, the order is canceled and the penniless three have to move from the village into The Center. When mysterious sounds of digging emerge from beneath their new apartment, Cipriano and Mar al investigate; what they find transforms the family's life. Filled with the depth, humor, and extraordinary philosophical richness that marks all of Saramago's novels, The Cave is one of the essential books of our time.
About the Author
JOSÉ SARAMAGO (1922–2010) was the author of many novels, among them Blindness, All the Names, Baltasar and Blimunda, and The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis. In 1998 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
MARGARET JULL COSTA has established herself as the premier translator of Portuguese literature into English today.