by José Saramago · Caminho · tapa blanda · ISBN 9789722120173
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In the 16th century, King John III of Portugal offers his cousin, Archduke Maximilian of Austria, an Indian elephant. The novel narrates the journey of this elephant across Europe, mixing historical facts with fictional elements. Saramago, with his characteristic style, offers an ironic and compassionate look at the human condition, exploring themes such as power, religion, and human stupidity. The story unfolds in a historical context, but with a focus on human relationships and philosophical reflections.
José de Sousa Saramago was a Portuguese writer. He was the recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature for his "parables sustained by imagination, compassion and irony [with which he] continually enables us once again to apprehend an elusory reality." His works, some of which can be seen as allegories, commonly present subversive perspectives on historic events, emphasizing the theopoetic human factor. In 2003 Harold Bloom described Saramago as "the most gifted novelist alive in the world today" and in 2010 said he considers Saramago to be "a permanent part of the Western canon", while James Wood praises "the distinctive tone to his fiction because he narrates his novels as if he were someone both wise and ignorant."
