What if, one day, Europe was to crack along the length of the Pyrenees, separating Spain and Portugal from the rest of Europe?
In Saramago's fable, a new island is sent spinning through the ocean like a great stone raft. While the authorities panic and tourists flee, three men, two women and a dog are drawn together by omens that burden them with a peculiar responsibility. In this magical realist tale, the six take to the road, finding themselves adrift in a world now unfamiliar and forced to reckon with their relationships, human psychology and the shakiness of belief itself.
Imprint: Vintage Digital
Published: 20/09/2013
ISBN: 9781448114924
Length: 288 Pages
RRP: £9.99
An irresistible blend of shrewd detail and lyrical fantasy... A seductive novel that needs to be savoured
An invitation to one of the richest bodies of work by a living writer
Jose Saramago's brilliant evocation...is magical realism of a sort that stirs real wonder
Saramago's lovely and original questing story, in a lineage of others such as Don Quixote and Kipling's Kim, is a journey of the spirit told as a journey of the feet
Tremendous wit is always apparent in his imaginative conceits, comic digression and verbal and narrative games