Small Memories

Resumen del libro

Let yourself be led by the child you were.' The Book of Exhortations

Born in Portugal in 1922 in the tiny village of Azinhaga, José Saramago was only eighteen months old when he moved with his father and mother to live in a series of cramped lodgings in a working-class neighbourhood of Lisbon. Nevertheless, he would return to the village throughout his childhood and adolescence, its river landscape and olive groves seeping deep into his memory.

Shifting back and forth between Azinhaga and Lisbon, this touching book is a mosaic of memories, a gathering together of the fragmented recollections that make up the idea of one's youth. Lust, love, humiliation, aspiration - the raptures and miseries of childhood are beautifully captured: Saramago's grandparents bringing the weaker piglets into their bed to keep them warm; the young José proudly carrying his first balloon on a string, only to be mocked by two strangers as it empties of air, the shrivelled remains dragging behind him; his first encounter with literature as he listens entranced to a friend's mother reading out weekly instalments of Maria, the Fairy of the Forest, and the seven-year-old José doggedly teaching himself to read by deciphering articles in the daily newspaper brought home by his father.

Written with Saramago's characteristic wit and honesty, Small Memories traces the formation of an artist fascinated by words and stories from an early age and who emerged, against all the odds, as one of the world's most respected writers.

Biografía del autor

x{0026}lt;P x{0026}lt;B José Saramago x{0026}lt;/B (Azinhaga, 1922-Tías, Lanzarote, 2010) es uno de los escritores portugueses más conocidos y apreciados en el mundo entero. En España, a partir de la primera publicación de x{0026}lt;I El año de la muerte de Ricardo Reis,x{0026}lt;/I en 1985, su trabajo literario recibió la mejor acogida de los lectores y de la crítica. Otros títulos importantes son x{0026}lt;I La viuda, Manual de pintura y caligrafía, Levantado del suelo, Memorial del convento, Casi un objeto, La balsa de piedra, Historia del cerco de Lisboa, El Evangelio según Jesucristo, Ensayo sobre la ceguera, Todos los nombres, La caverna, El hombre duplicado, Ensayo sobre la lucidez, Las intermitencias de la muerte, El viaje del elefante, Caín, Claraboyax{0026}lt;/I y x{0026}lt;I Alabardas. x{0026}lt;/I Alfaguara ha publicado también x{0026}lt;I Poesía completa, Cuadernos de Lanzarote I y II, Viaje a Portugal,x{0026}lt;/I el relato breve x{0026}lt;I El cuento de la isla desconocida, x{0026}lt;/I el cuento infantil x{0026}lt;I La flor más grande del mundo,x{0026}lt;/I el libro autobiográfico x{0026}lt;I Las pequeñas memorias, El Cuaderno, José Saramago en sus palabras,x{0026}lt;/I un repertorio de declaraciones del autor recogidas en la prensa escrita, x{0026}lt;I El último Cuaderno, Qué haréis con este libro. Teatro completox{0026}lt;/I y x{0026}lt;I El Cuaderno del año del Nobel. x{0026}lt;/I Recibió el Premio Cam es y el Premio Nobel de Literatura.x{0026}lt;/P