The Double: (Enemy)

Description

Wherein lies our identity? An existential thriller and work of literature that takes on the essential questions of life Watching a rented video, Tertuliano Maximo Afonso is shocked to notice that one of the actors is identical to him in every physical detail. He embarks on a secret quest to find his double and sets in motion a train of events that he cannot control. Saramago's novel explores the nature of individuality and examines the fear and insecurity that arise when our singularity comes under threat, when even a wife cannot tell the original from the imposter...

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.

Quite unlike anything else * London Review of Books * A Borgesian fable with a marvellous flavour all its own -- Phillip Hensher, Books of the Year * Spectator * A comic and profound exploration of the self... A uniquely seductive writer * Daily Telegraph * The Double is Saramago at his most practised and polished. It is philosophy and thriller rolled into one * Independent * Indebted to Borges and with a nod to Auster, he manages to surpass both with the audacity and sheer erudition of his prose -- Catherine Taylor * The Guardian *