All The Names

Description

A subtle and insightful story about boredom, passion, curiosity and memory from the Nobel Prize-winner Jose Saramago A subtle and insightful story about boredom, passion, curiosity and memory from the Nobel Prize-winner Jose Saramago Senhor Jose is a lonely civil servant who spends his days labouring in the labyrinthine stacks of Lisbon's central registry. Among the file-cards for the living and the dead, one - of an apparently ordinary woman - will transform his life. Breaking away from his strict routine, Jose resolves to track the woman down, obsessively following a thread of clues in a bid to rescue her from an oblivion deeper than the grave. 'When a very good book finds us at just the right moment in life, it can become stitched into our own identity. All the Names - a novel about identity and connection - has become stitched into mine' Samantha Harvey, Independent

Born in Portugal in 1922, Jose Saramago was one of the most important writers of his generation. He was in his fifties when he came to prominence as a novelist with the publication of Baltasar & Blimunda. A huge body of work followed, which included plays, poetry, short stories, non-fiction and over a dozen novels, including Blindness which was made into an acclaimed film. He has been translated into more than forty languages, and in 1998 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. He died on 18 June 2010, shortly after the Portuguese publication of Cain.

A novel that has soul, which Saramago offers to his readers with all his witty, intelligent, tender and magical generosity -- Samantha Harvey * Independent * Offers an unearthly, muted beauty; a freedom from the obvious, the ideological and trivial; an atmosphere of profound serenity, and a benevolent humor * Literary Review * Both delightful and unsettling which is perhaps the mark of true literature -- Anthony Daniels * Sunday Telegraph * A tantalizing novel...shifting and teasing, full of metaphorical labyrinths and false trails * Herald * It is the marriage of the living and the dying...that so strongly characterizes the writing of Jose Saramago * New Statesman *