The Collected Novels of José Saramago

by José Saramago, Ursula K. Le Guin (Foreword), Margaret Jull Costa (Translator)

This collection, available exclusively in e-book form, brings together the twelve novels (and one novella) of the great Portuguese writer José Saramago, with an introductory essay by Ursula Le Guin.

From Saramago's early work, like the enchanting Baltasar Blimunda and the controversial Gospel According to Jesus Christ, through his masterpiece Blindness and its sequel Seeing, to his later fables of politics, chance, history, and love, like All the Names and Death with Interruptions, this volume showcases the range and depth of Saramago's career, his inimitable narrative voice, and his vast reserves of invention, humor, and understanding.

Included in this collection:
* Baltasar and Blimunda (1987)
* The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis (1991)
* The Gospel According to Jesus Christ (1994)
* The Stone Raft (1995)
* The History of the Siege of Lisbon (1997)
* Blindness (1998)
* The Tale of the Unknown Island (1999)
* All the Names (2000)
* The Cave (2002)
* The Double (2004)
* Seeing (2006)
* Death with Interruptions (2008)
* The Elephant's Journey (2010)

Genres: Fiction, Collections, Ebooks, Novels, Anthologies, Portugal

2986 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

José de Sousa Saramago (16 November 1922 – 18 June 2010) was a Portuguese novelist and 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 have been seen as allegories, commonly present subversive perspectives on historic events, emphasizing the theopoetic. In 2003 Harold Bloom described Saramago as "the most gifted novelist alive in the world today."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%...

Reviews

[Brian]

at $21 it's less than a cent per page. If a better use for money has been invented, I haven't heard of it yet.

[Millie]

Well, I didn't read all the novels, just BLINDNESS. It was a compelling read: chilling yet uplifting. Not a pretty read, since it reflects some of the sordid cruelty of humanity, especially under duress, in this case, blindness. However, sweet reason does prevail, as well as some luck. The protagonist, a woman, has her foibles but also her strengths and gives the book its focus. Saramago won a Novel Prize. I read another of his books, ALL THE NAMES, and was not as engaged as I was with this work. A work that one should wait to read until one has experienced some of the world's anguish--not for the young or squeamish.

[Charlie]

"It is not true: the journey never ends. Only travelers stop. And even then, they can get back to it through memories and stories.(…) Go back to the steps they already took, take them again and go new ways. Repeat the journey. Again and again. The traveler always go back to the road."

Jose Saramago

[Susan]

BLINDNESS was on EW's 100 all time best novels.

[Derek Gale]

You don’t buy the collected works unless you rate an author highly. And for all his failings and didacticism He is a wonderful author who makes you want to go on reading and leaves you thinking long after the reading is finished. If you read nothing else read blindness

[David]

This is a best buy! Some of the books of Saramago are only available in this collection, including the English translation of Journey of an Elephant, a wonderful tale of an elephant's journey from Lisbon to Vienna, based on a real event in the 1500's which I found to be a very nice story.