Jose: Saramago Livros
Together with a mad priest named Father Bartolomeu de Gusmão, they attempt to build a flying machine, a "Passarola," to escape the cruelty of the Inquisition and the tyrannical King Dom João V.
| Year | Portuguese Title | English Title | Key Theme | | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | | 1977 | Manual de Pintura e Caligrafia | Manual of Painting & Calligraphy | Art and alienation | | 1980 | Levantado do Chão | Raised from the Ground | Portuguese rural struggle | | 1982 | Memorial do Convento | Baltasar and Blimunda | Love & flight | | 1984 | O Ano da Morte de Ricardo Reis | The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis | Pessoa’s ghost & fascism | | 1986 | A Jangada de Pedra | The Stone Raft | Iberian separation | | 1989 | História do Cerco de Lisboa | The History of the Siege of Lisbon | Historiography as fiction | | 1991 | O Evangelho segundo Jesus Cristo | The Gospel According to Jesus Christ | Heretical faith | | 1995 | Ensaio sobre a Cegueira | Blindness | Societal collapse | | 1997 | Todos os Nomes | All the Names | Bureaucracy & identity | | 2000 | A Caverna | The Cave | Consumerism | | 2002 | O Homem Duplicado | The Double | Doppelgängers | | 2004 | Ensaio sobre a Lucidez | Seeing | Political democracy | | 2005 | As Intermitências da Morte | Death with Interruptions | Immortality’s curse | | 2008 | A Viagem do Elefante | The Elephant’s Journey | Absurdist historical trip | | 2009 | Caim | Cain | Old Testament fury | jose saramago livros
This is Saramago’s heart. Set in 18th-century Portugal during the Inquisition, it tells three stories simultaneously: the construction of a giant convent, the building of a flying machine (the "Passarola"), and a love affair between a soldier and a clairvoyant woman. It is dense with historical detail, but it soars with magical realism. It is the ultimate book about the power of human will against religious and royal oppression. Together with a mad priest named Father Bartolomeu
This is the one that put him on the global map for most English readers. The premise is terrifyingly simple: an entire city is struck by a "white blindness." Everyone can see light, but no shapes, no faces, no objects. What follows is not a medical thriller, but a brutal, philosophical descent into human nature. Saramago strips away society and asks: When we cannot see each other, do we still have humanity? Warning: It is violent, raw, and unforgettable. Read it with a glass of wine nearby. It is dense with historical detail, but it
This book caused such a scandal that Portugal allegedly blocked him from the European Literary Prize. Saramago reimagines Jesus Christ as a flawed, anxious, and deeply human man. God is a cruel, manipulative tyrant, and the Devil is a sympathetic philosopher living in a hut. It is not an anti-religious book; it is an anti-power book. It asks: What if God sacrificed Jesus not to save humanity, but for his own vanity? A stunning, provocative read.
"If you can see, look. If you can look, observe."
