The Stone Raft

Description

A majestic tale, rich in allegory, wit and philosophy; another masterpiece from the Nobel prize-winning novelist Jose Saramago. 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.

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. Giovanni Pointiero, formerly Reader in Latin-American Literature in the University of Manchester, was Saramago's regular English translator. His translation of The Gospel according to Jesus Christ was awarded the Teixeira-Gomes Prize for Portuguese translation. He was also the principal English translator of the works of Clarice Lispector. He died in 1996.

"An irresistible blend of shrewd detail and lyrical fantasy... A seductive novel that needs to be savoured" -- Helen Dunmore Observer "An invitation to one of the richest bodies of work by a living writer" -- Amanda Hopkinson New Statesman "Jose Saramago's brilliant evocation...is magical realism of a sort that stirs real wonder" -- James Park Time Out "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" -- Richard Eder Los Angeles Times "Tremendous wit is always apparent in his imaginative conceits, comic digression and verbal and narrative games" -- Ian Critchley Sunday Times