Bøker av José Saramago

No food, no water, no government, no obligation, no order. Discover a chillingly powerful and prescient dystopian vision from one of Europe's greatest writers. A driver waiting at the traffic lights goes blind.

Despite the heavy rain, the officer at Polling Station 14 finds it odd that by midday on National Election day, only a handful of voters have turned out. Puzzlement swiftly escalates to shock when the final count reveals seventy per cent of the votes are blank. National law decrees the election should be repeated but the result is even worse.

Saramago's Jesus is the son not of God but of Joseph. In the wilderness he tussles not with the Devil - a kindly and necessary evil - but with God, a fallible, power-hungry autocrat. And he must die not for the sins of the fathers but for the sins of the Father.

Saramago tar leseren med på ei reise utenom allfarvei. Han gir et bilde av Portugals geografi, historie og kultur, med minner om romere og maurere, allmenne og spesielle stilarter gjennom århundrer, om bosetning og håndverk, skikker hos fjellfolk og blant kystens fiskere. Reisen begynner i Spania og ender ved Algarve-kysten.

A story by Nobel Prize-winning writer Jose Saramago, gorgeously illustrated in woodcuts by one of Brazil''s most famous artists.When a lizard appears in the neighborhood of Chiado, in Lisbon, it surprises passers-by, and mobilizes firefighters and the army. With a clear and precise style, the fable offers a multitude of senses, reaching audiences of all ages. "The Lizard" is a short story included in A Bagagem do Viajante (1973), a volume that brought together the Saramago chronicles for the newspaper A Capital and the weekly Jornal do Fundão between 1971 and 1972. Translated by Nick Caistor and Lucia Caistor, The Lizard, is an illustrated version of the chronicle by J. Borges.

From the misty mountains of the north to the southern seascape of the Algarve, the travels of Nobel Laureate Jose Saramago are a passionate rediscovery of his own land.

For two years Solomon the elephant has lived in Lisbon. So begins a journey that will take the stalwart elephant across the dusty plains of Castile, over the sea to Genoa and up to northern Italy where, like Hannibal's elephants before him, he must cross the snowy Alps.

Undertakers face bankruptcy, the church is forced to reinvent its doctrine, and local 'maphia' smuggle those on the brink of death over the border where they can expire naturally. Death does return eventually, but with a new, courteous approach - delivering violet warning letters to her victims.

After killing his brother Abel, Cain must wander for ever.Written in the last years of Saramago's life, Cain wittily tackles many of the moral and logical non sequiturs created by a wilful, authoritarain God, forming part of Saramago's long argument with God and recalling his provocative novel The Gospel According to Jesus Christ.

Nobel Prize winner José Saramago tells a quiet and poetic story, an excerpt from his book Small Memories, of a lasting childhood experience of simple, soulful joy. The narrator's memories of a lost childhood paradise focus on two glorious days when he helped his uncle take some piglets to the market in Santarém. They traverse dusty roads, sleep in a barn and awake to a miraculous moonglow, and hear the animals in their “infinite conversations.” The journey, the night, the wind, the light. . . . This poetic story is an unforgettable adventure narrated by José Saramago and presented alongside Armando Fonseca’s fanciful and evocative illustrations.A very special gift for readers of all ages.

The inspiration for the major motion picture "Enemy" starring Jake Gyllenhaal and directed by Denis Villeneuve Tertuliano Máximo Afonso is a divorced, depressed history teacher. To lift his spirits, a colleague suggests he rent a certain video. Tertuliano watches the film, unimpressed. But during the night, when he is awakened by noises in his apartment, he goes into the living room to find that the VCR is replaying the video. He watches in astonishment as a man who looks exactly like him-or, more specifically, exactly like he did five years before, mustachioed and fuller in the face-appears on the screen. He sleeps badly. Against his better judgment, Tertuliano decides to pursue his double. As he roots out the man's identity, what begins as a whimsical story becomes a "wonderfully twisted meditation on identity and individuality" (The Boston Globe). Saramago displays his remarkable talent in this haunting tale of appearance versus reality.

WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE FOR LITERATUREJosé Saramago's mesmerizing, classic narrative about the loneliness of individual lives and the universal need for human connection.Senhor José is a low-grade clerk in the city's Central Registry, where the living and the dead share the same shelf space. A middle-aged bachelor, he has no interest in anything beyond the certificates of birth, marriage, divorce, and death that are his daily routine. But one day, when he comes across the records of an anonymous young woman, something happens to him. Obsessed, Senhor José sets off to follow the thread that may lead him to the woman?but as he gets closer, he discovers more about her, and about himself, than he would ever have wished.The loneliness of people's lives, the effects of chance, the discovery of love?all coalesce in this extraordinary novel that displays the power and art of José Saramago in brilliant form.

While fishing on the river bank, a young boy experiences a moment of growing awareness of the world around him.

Nobel Prize-winner Jose Saramago's brilliant novel poses the question--what happens when the grim reaper decides there will be no more death? On the first day of the new year, no one dies. This of course causes consternation among politicians, religious leaders, morticians, and doctors. Among the general public, on the other hand, there is initially celebration--flags are hung out on balconies, people dance in the streets. They have achieved the great goal of humanity: eternal life. Then reality hits home--families are left to care for the permanently dying, life-insurance policies become meaningless, and funeral parlors are reduced to arranging burials for pet dogs, cats, hamsters, and parrots. Death sits in her chilly apartment, where she lives alone with scythe and filing cabinets, and contemplates her experiment: What if no one ever died again? What if she, death with a small d, became human and were to fall in love?

"The clarity and compassion of [Saramago's] vision make Seeing worthy of its name." --Washington Post ¿"I have never read a novel that gets so many details of the political behavior that we for some reason insist on calling 'organized' so hilariously and grimly right." --Chicago Tribune On election day in the capital, it is raining so hard that no one has bothered to come out to vote. The politicians are growing jittery. Should they reschedule the elections for another day? Around three o'clock, the rain finally stops. Promptly at four, voters rush to the polling stations, as if they had been ordered to appear.But when the ballots are counted, more than 70 percent are blank. The citizens are rebellious. A state of emergency is declared. But are the authorities acting too precipitously? Or even blindly? The word evokes terrible memories of the plague of blindness that hit the city four years before, and of the one woman who kept her sight. Could she be behind the blank ballots? A police superintendent is put on the case.What begins as a satire on governments and the sometimes dubious efficacy of the democratic system turns into something far more sinister.

"[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 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 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 Marçal 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.

The Nobel Prize-winning author explores his homeland in "this monumental work, a literary hybrid" of cultural history, literary nonfiction, and travelogue (Publishers Weekly). When José Saramago decided to write a book about Portugal, his only desire was that it be unlike all other books on the subject, and in this he has certainly succeeded. Recording the events and observations of a journey across the length and breadth of the country he loves dearly, Saramago brings Portugal to life as only a writer of his brilliance can. Forfeiting the usual sources such as tourist guides and road maps, he scours the country with the eyes and ears of an observer fascinated by the ancient myths and history of his people. Whether it be an inaccessible medieval fortress set on a cliff, a wayside chapel thick with cobwebs, or a grand mansion in the city, the extraordinary places of this land come alive. Always meticulously attentive to those elements of ancient Portugal that persist today, he examines the country in its current period of rapid transition and growth. Journey to Portugal is an ode to a country and its rich traditions.

A stunningly powerful novel of humanity's will to survive against all odds during an epidemic by a winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. An International Bestseller • "This is a shattering work by a literary master."-Boston Globe A city is hit by an epidemic of "white blindness" which spares no one. Authorities confine the blind to an empty mental hospital, but there the criminal element holds everyone captive, stealing food rations and raping women. There is one eyewitness to this nightmare who guides seven strangers-among them a boy with no mother, a girl with dark glasses, a dog of tears-through the barren streets, and the procession becomes as uncanny as the surroundings are harrowing. A magnificent parable of loss and disorientation, Blindness has swept the reading public with its powerful portrayal of our worst appetites and weaknesses-and humanity's ultimately exhilarating spirit. "This is a an important book, one that is unafraid to face all of the horror of the century."-Washington Post A New York Times Notable Book of the Year A Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year

Jesus gjør mange merkelige ting, men det merkeligste er likevel den indre glød som synes å styre hans liv. I et syn ser han at menneskene skal komme til å lide for hans skyld. I denne beretningen gir forfatteren de grunnleggende spørsmål om synd og soning og om offerets dypeste betydning en helt ny vinkling.

Handlingen i boken er lagt til Portugal på 1700-tallet. Munken Bartolomeu har nettopp innfridd menneskenes drøm om å kunne fly. Med seg på sin altfor korte ferd har han den enarmede Baltasar og den skjønne, gåtefulle Blimunda. De flyr over Mafra, der tusener av tvangsutskrevne arbeidere sliter med å reise klosteret som kong Joao V hadde lovet fransiskanerne i håp om at Herren vil skjenke han en arving.

Kommunevalget i den ikke navngitte byen gir et urovekkende resultat. Den lave valgdeltakelsen kan skyldes det voldsomme regnværet, men langt mer foruroligende er det at omtrent 83% av stemmesedlene viser seg å være blanke. Myndighetspersoner aner et opprør, og setter i gang tiltak for å ta ondet ved roten. Raskt brister systemets demokratiske ferniss. Borgernes rettigheter innskrenkes og fjernes. I det stigende hysteriet føres trådene tilbake til den epidemi av blindhet som rammet byens innbyggere noen år tidligere, en hvit blindhet som bare skånet en kvinne. Kan de blanke stemmesedlene føres tilbake til denne kvinnen fra den gangen? Konspirasjonsteoriene florerer. Og i den stadig villere jakten, legger ingen merke til mannen med blått slips og hvite prikker.

Raimundo Silva er korrekturleser og holder akkurat på med tredje gjennomgang av boken "Beleiringen av Lisboa". Han er dødens trett av hele greia. Med fast hånd føyer han til et nytt ord i teksten, et ikke, hvorved Portugals historie tar en ny vending. "Beleiringen av Lisboa" er en av Nobelprisvinnerens mest humoristiske bøker, breddfull av ironi og rare innfall, og med undertoner som blir mer hørbare etter hvert som handlingen utfolder seg.

En bilist stanser ved rødt lys. Da lyset skifter rikker han seg ikke. Han er blitt blind. Det første tilfellet i en ubegripelig epidemi som snart skal føre til kaos, redsel og uoverveid brutalitet. Romanen kan leses som en fabel med sterke politiske understrømmer. Det skremmende i boka setter i gang mekanismer som raskt flår vekk dannelsens tynne ferniss. Men det finnes noen som "ser", som samler på de gode kreftene.

Saramago sendte inn manuset til Lyssjakten i 1953 og fikk ikke svar før i 1989. Da gjenfant forlaget det i en skuff og selv om dette fortsatt var noen år før han fikk nobelprisen, ville de gjerne utgi. Saramago nektet og gav ingen tillatelse til å utgi dette ungdomsverket i sin egen levetid. Boken representerte for ham ikke først og fremst et minne om avslag, men om forlagets likegyldighet og dårlige manerer. Det er uansett en begivenhet at boken endelig kommer ut, for dette er en roman som allerede tydelig viser at den kommende mesteren var full av kreativitet og ikke vek unna for kontroversielle spørsmål. Vi blir kjent med et knippe naboer i Lisboa som Silvestre og Mariana, et eldre, godt gift ektepar som tar inn den unge Abel som leieboer. Adriane, som er mer glad i Beethoven enn menn, men hvis gryende seksuelle oppvåkning er i ferd med skape nye følelser. Carmen har forlatt Galicia for å gifte seg med den stillferdige Emilio, men hater Lisboa og lengter tilbake til sin første store kjærlighet, Manolo. Lidia som pleide å jobbe på gaten som prostituert, men nå har en fast "venn", den rike Paulo, som sørger for henne. Dette er noen av karakterene vi møter i denne nyoppdagde romanen som er like dypsindig klok som vi kjenner Saramago fra hans senere arbeid, men med en friskhet som er mer typisk for en fortsatt uetablert forfatter.

1551. Dom João den tredje, kongen av Portugal og Argarve, gir elefanten Salomo i gave til sin hustrus fetter, erkehertug Maximilian. Slik innledes elefantens reise fra Lisboa til Wien, sammen med kornaken Subhro og et følge av kavaleri og intendantur. På veien opplever elefanten like uforutsette ting som en Don Quijote, og blir sett av et mylder av mennesker som tolker det som skjer, slik at de til sammen skaper en reiseskildring.

En kveld ser Tertuliano Máximo Afonso filmen Den som leter, finner. En skuespiller i filmen er prikk lik han selv. Han finner frem til fyren, gode og men også perfide krefter utløses. Hvem kom først, hvem er originalen og hvem er kopien?

Dette er en roman om Portugal gjennom dikteren Fernando Pessoas øyne. Men det er også en roman om sjelens labyrinter, om kjærlighet og unnfallenhet, om politisk dårskap og følelsenes villnis, om alt det som gjør mennesket til menneske. Pessoas skrev under flere navn og levde sine pseudonymers liv. Saramago tar Pessoa på ordet når han lar et av heteronymene, legen Ricardo Reis, vende tilbake til Lisboa fra Brasil i 1935, bare en månede etter den virkelige Pessoas død. Han blir gjenstand for Lidias varme følelser, opptar legegjerningen og betrakter med resignasjon verden rundt seg, en verden på kanten av stupet.

Pyreneene har åpnet seg fra øverst til nederst. Spania og Portugal seiler langsomt ut i Atlanterhavet, tar kursen mot Azorene, dreier mot USA, kanskje mot Canada. Uforklarlige hendelser inntreffer: en kvinne risser en stripe i marken med en almekvist akkurat der bruddet skjer, en mann kaster en ubegripelig stor stein i havet, stumme hunder gjør, svære flokker av stær gjør en mann forrykt. Seismologer og geologer, politikere og journalister forsøker å finne forklaringen på det utrolige som er skjedd.

Temaet i denne romanen er bibelske fortellinger. Den handler blant annet om Kain som slo i hjel sin bror Abel.