ISBN: 0547540043 9780547540047

Category: Fiction / Literary

Page count: 388

<b>A fictional account of the life of Christ “illuminated by ferocious wit, gentle passion, and poetry”—from the Nobel Prize-winning author of <i>Skylight</i> (<i>Los Angeles Times Book Review</i>).</b><br>  <br> For José Saramago, the life of Jesus Christ and the story of his Passion were things of this earth: a child crying, a gust of wind, the caress of a woman half asleep, the bleat of a goat or the bark of a dog, a prayer uttered in the grayish morning light. The Holy Family reflects the real complexities of any family, but this is realism filled with vision, dream, and omen.<br>  <br> Saramago’s deft psychological portrait of a savior who is at once the Son of God and a young man of this earth is an expert interweaving of poetry and irony, spirituality and irreverence. The result is nothing less than a brilliant skeptic’s wry inquest into the meaning of God and of human existence.<br>  <br> “Enough to assure [Saramago] a place in the universal library and in human memory.”—<i>The Nation</i><br><br> “Fiction that engages the mind as well as the spirit.”—<i>Kirkus Reviews</i><br><br> “Mixes magic, myth, and reality into a potent brew.”—<i>Booklist </i><br>  <br><b>Praise for José Saramago</b><br>  <br> “The greatest writer of our time.”—<i>Chicago Tribune</i><br>  <br> “A literary master.”—<i>The </i><i>Boston Globe</i><br>  <br> “Saramago is the most tender of writers . . . With a clear-eyed and compassionate acknowledgment of things as they are, and a quality that can only be termed wisdom. We should be grateful when it is handed to us in such generous measure.”—<i>The </i><i>New York Times</i><br>  <br> “Saramago’s fiction operates in a realm not far from fable: the territory of Kafka, Gogol, and Borges.”—<i>Los Angeles Times</i>