The last novel to be written before the death of the great Portuguese novelist and Nobel Prize winner Jose Saramago, who passed away in June 2010 - a controversial book in the mode of The Gospel According To Jesus Christ
Two decades after Portuguese novelist and Nobel Laureate José Saramago shocked the religious world with his novel The Gospel According To Jesus Christ, he has done it again with Cain, a satire of the Old Testament. Written in the last years of Saramago’s life, it tackles many of the moral and logical non sequiturs created by a wilful, authoritarian God, and forms part of Saramago’s long argument with religion.The stories in this book are witty and provocative. After Adam and Eve have been cast out of Eden, Eve decides to go back and ask the angel guarding the gate if he can give her some of the fruit that is going to waste inside. The angel agrees, and although Eve swears to Adam that she offered the angel nothing in return, their first child is suspiciously blond and fair-skinned. Cain, in his wandering, overhears a strange conversation between a man named Abraham and his son Isaac – and manages to prevent the father from murdering the son. The angel appointed by God to prevent the murder arrives late due to a wing malfunction. Cain brushes off his apology. ‘What would have happened if I hadn’t been here?’ Cain asks, ‘and what kind of god would ask a father to sacrifice his own son?’Saramago died in June 2010, shortly after the controversial Portuguese publication of Cain but before he could participate in its publication in other countries. Harvill Secker’s edition of this remarkable book will be part of a tribute to Saramago’s life and work which includes the gradual reissue of his previous novels as Vintage Classics.
About the Author
José Saramago is one of the most important international writers of the last hundred years. Born in Portugal in 1922 in the small rural village of Azinhaga, he was in his fifties when he came to prominence as a writer with the publication of Baltasar and Blimunda. A huge body of work followed, which included plays, poetry, short stories, non-fiction and over a dozen novels, translated into more than forty languages, and in 1998 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. He died in June 2010.
Industry Reviews
"Jose Saramago's final novel is an inventory of God's less noble moments... as flawed and wonderful a place to inhabit as the world his cosmic nemesis created." The Sunday Herald "Every page of this novella, translated with a fluent and light touch by Margaret Jull Costa, has its charm. Every page raises difficult questions... as the final testament of Portuguese master, it is suitably disturbing and a pleasure to read." Scotsman "Cain reminds us why Saramago's work remains vitally important." Metro "There are some very funny moments in this reimagining of the story of Adam and Eve's fratricidal son... Hats must be doffed once again to Margaret Jull Costa, Saramago's fearless long-time translator, for taming his punctuation-free prose, rendering ti not only readable, but enjoyable, and for bringing the late Portuguese author's often challenging work to a worldwide readership." Financial Times "Saramago's breathless prose, expertly rendered into English by Margaret Jull Costa... conveys the sheer enjoyment of a writer bowing out at the top of his form." The Sunday Times
