Saramago wrote this novel in the early 1950s, but it was not published until 2011, after his death. It is set in a Lisbon apartment building in the 1940s, where the lives of the residents are revealed through their routines and quarrels. A shoemaker and his wife, a pair of sisters, a mother and daughter who rent rooms, a kept woman and her lover, and an unhappy marriage show the pressures of poverty, the dictatorship and the closeness of people forced to live near each other. The narrative moves between flats like a skylight offering a view.
It is for readers of Saramago who wish to see his early realistic voice before the long, flowing style of his later work. Anyone interested in Portugal under Salazar will find an ordinary-life portrait here.
Thought-provoking; a moderate read.
Best for readers like The Story Seeker. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 2011
- Publisher
- Editorial Caminho
- ISBN
- 9789722124416
- Language
- PT
