Brief Description
Cipriano Algor, an elderly potter, lives with his family in a small village on the outskirts of The Center, a mysterious place they are forced to contend with. Filled with the depth, humor, and the extraordinary philosophical richness that marks each of Saramago's novels, "The Cave" is an essential book.
Learn More about the Book
Cipriano Algor, an elderly potter, lives with his daughter Marta and her husband Marcal in a small village on the outskirts of The Center, an imposing complex of shops, apartments, and offices to which Cipriano delivers his pots and jugs every month. On one such trip, he is told not to make any more deliveries. Unwilling to give up his craft, Cipriano tries his hand at making ceramic dolls. Astonishingly, The Center places an order for hundreds, and Cipriano and Marta set to work-until the order is cancelled and the three have to move from the village into The Center. When mysterious sounds of digging emerge from beneath their apartment, Cipriano and Marcal investigate, and what they find transforms the family's life. Filled with the depth, humor, and the extraordinary philosophical richness that marks each of Saramago's novels, The Cave is one of the essential books of our time.
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On the Back Cover
A Los Angeles Times Best Book
A New York Times Notable Book
"[The Cave] is yet another triumph . . . for Portugal's, or even the world's, greatest living novelist. Read it."-The Washington Post Book World
Cipriano Algor, an elderly potter, lives with his daughter Marta and her husband Marcal in a small village on the outskirts of The Center, an imposing complex of shops and apartments to which Cipriano delivers his wares. One day, he is told not to make any more deliveries. Unwilling to give up his craft, Cipriano tries his hand at making ceramic dolls. Astonishingly, The Center places an order for hundreds. But just as suddenly, the order is cancelled and the penniless three have to move from the village into The Center. When mysterious sounds of digging emerge from beneath their new apartment, Cipriano
and Marcal investigate; what they find transforms the family's life. Filled with the depth, humor, and extraordinary philosophical richness that marks each of Saramago's novels, The Cave is one of the essential books of our time.
"As with Proust, to be drawn into a Saramago sentence is to be drawn into a world that takes shape out of a maze. . . . His human voices wake us and we live."-The New York Times Book Review
JOSE SARAMAGO is one of the most acclaimed writers in the world today. He is the author of numerous novels, including All the Names and Blindness. In 1998 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. -Chicago Tribune
MARGARET JULL COSTA has established herself as the premier translator of Portuguese literature into English today, and her previous renderings of Saramago's novels are highly acclaimed.
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About the Author
JOSE SARAMAGO (1922 2010) was the author of many novels, among them Blindness, All the Names, Baltasarand Blimunda, and The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis. In 1998 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Review Quotes
1. "The teensiest bit of plot is meaningfully, accessibly stretched into something enormous."
2. "Arguably the greatest writer of our time. He throw[s] a dazzling flash of lightning on his subjects."
3. "Saramago says he is really an essayist who took to writing novels. This is true. But the novels are masterly."
4. "Saramago's long fluid sentences, richly stocked with folk wisdom, lend his novels a rare quality of permanence."
5. What truly elevates-- is Saramago's style; this fantastically agile, irrepressibly funny, sympathetic, cerebral, and sometimes even corny voice."
6. "A gripping, beautifully written, utterly enchanting, archaically romantic, and, at times, devastating take on ordinary people struggling to survive."
7. "A densely textured, wonderfully resonant reworking of Plato''s allegory."
8. "Saramago''s long fluid sentences, richly stocked with folk wisdom, lend his novels a rare quality of permanence."
9. "Loving collaboration that insists on the value of independence and a firm belief that art can''t be separated from life."
10. What truly elevates-- is Saramago''s style; this fantastically agile, irrepressibly funny, sympathetic, cerebral, and sometimes even corny voice."
11. "An unassuming tour de force."
12. "A densely textured, wonderfully resonant reworking of Plato''s allegory."
13. "The teensiest bit of plot is meaningfully, accessibly stretched into something enormous."
14. "Arguably the greatest writer of our time. He throw[s] a dazzling flash of lightning on his subjects."
15. "Saramago says he is really an essayist who took to writing novels. This is true. But the novels are masterly."
16. "Another masterpiece from a remarkable writer who really may be, as many readers believe, the greatest living novelist."
17. "We''ll say it again: Saramago is the finest novelist, bar none."--starred review "Kirkus "
18. PRAISE FOR THE CAVE
"Nothing about The Cave feels like the work of either an old man of 80 or a world-famous author playing it safe. . . . It is yet another triumph . . . for Portugal's, or even the world's, greatest living novelist. Read it."--The Washington Post Book World
"As with Proust, to be drawn into a Saramago sentence is to be drawn into a world that takes shape out of a maze. . . . His human voices wake us and we live."--The New York Times Book Review
19. PRAISE FOR THE CAVE
"Nothing about The Cave feels like the work of either an old man of 80 or a world-famous author playing it safe. . . . It is yet another triumph . . . for Portugal's, or even the world's, greatest living novelist. Read it."--The Washington Post Book World
"As with Proust, to be drawn into a Saramago sentence is to be drawn into a world that takes shape out of a maze. . . . His human voices wake us and we live."--The New York Times Book Review
20. "We'll say it again: Saramago is the finest novelist, bar none."
--starred review "Kirkus "
21. "A compassionate study of loyalty, love and the ways in which people face the forces trying to obliterate their spirit."
--Francine Prose "People Magazine "
