by José Saramago · tapa blanda · ISBN 9788420472744
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«Memorial del convento» is the historical novel by José Saramago, published by Alfaguara in paperback (470 pages, in Spanish).
The plot is set in 18th-century Portugal, during the reign of John V, and follows the construction of the Convent of Mafra. Saramago interweaves official history with the lives of Baltasar Mateus and Blimunda, two popular characters, to reflect on power, religion, love and the human condition, with a critical view of the society of his time.
The novel was originally published in 1982; this Spanish edition belongs to Alfaguara's Biblioteca Saramago collection.
Recommended for readers of historical fiction interested in 18th-century Portugal and Saramago's narrative work.
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."
