Book description
Cipriano Algor, an ageing potter, lives with his daughter and her
husband in the shadow of the Centre, a nebulous, constantly expanding
conglomerate that provides his livelihood - until it decrees that it
is no longer interested in his humble wares.
Together with his daughter, they craft a new line of small ceramic
figurines and, to their bafflement, the Centre orders vast quantities.
But once the figures are complete, the Centre recants: there is no
market for them. Resigned to idleness Cipriano moves into the soulless
megaplex, until late one night he comes across a horrifying secret in
the bowels of the artificial city.
The Cave is a harrowing, joyful masterpiece: an Orwellian
nightmare, a family fable and an uplifting love story.
Born in Portugal in 1922, José Saramago was one of the most
important writers of his generation. He was in his fifties when he came
to prominence as a novelist with the publication of
Baltasar & Blimunda
. A huge body of work followed, which included plays, poetry, short
stories, non-fiction and over a dozen novels, including
Blindness
which was made into an acclaimed film. He has been translated into more
than forty languages, and in 1998 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for
Literature. He died on 18 June 2010, shortly after the Portuguese
publication of
Cain
.
