Manual of Painting and Calligraphy

From the Nobel Prize winning author--a novel that takes us into the last days of Salazar's dictatorship when a second-rate artist is commissioned by a wealthy client to paint a portrait and the political and intellectual struggles that ensue.

Manual of Painting and Calligraphy was José Saramago's first novel. Written eight years before the critically acclaimed Baltasar and Blimunda, it is a story of self-discovery set against the background of the last years of Salazar's dictatorship. A struggling young artist, commissioned to paint a portrait of an influential industrialist, learns in the process about himself and the world around him. The brilliant juxtaposition of a passionate love story and the crisis of a nation foreshadows all of Saramago's major works. A must-have for any devotee of the great Portuguese Nobel laureate, Manual of Painting and Calligraphy is now available in the United States.

Taut and compelling. -- Los Angeles Times Book Review

Beautifully realized, heartbreakingly honest. -- Providence Journal-Bulletin

"Almost impossible to put down." -- Austin American-Statesman

Author: José Saramago
Publisher: Harpervia
Published: 05/01/2012
Pages: 256
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.57lbs
Size: 8.10h x 5.40w x 0.70d
ISBN: 9780547640228

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 12/01/2011 pg. 96
Kirkus Reviews 03/01/2012
Publishers Weekly 03/05/2012 pg. 2
Library Journal 03/01/2012 pg. 89
Booklist 04/01/2012 pg. 24

About the Author

JOSÉ SARAMAGO (19222010) was the author of many books, among them Blindness and The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis. In 1998, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

GIOVANNI PONTIERO translated all of Saramago's novels until his death in 1997, just after finishing his translation of Blindness.