José Saramago

Margaret Jull Costa

Despite the heavy rain, the presiding officer at Polling Station 14 finds it odd that by midday on National Election day, only a handful of voters have turned out. Puzzlement swiftly escalates to shock when eventually, after an extension, the final count reveals seventy per cent of the votes are blank - not spoiled, simply blank. National law decrees the election should be repeated eight days later. The result is worse; eighty-three per cent of the votes are blank. The incumbent government receives eight per cent and the opposition even less. The authorities, seized with panic, decamp from the capital and place it under a state of emergency. Who are the insurgents? Why the desire to destabilise the country? The authorities leap from one possibility to the next, but achieve nothing. The lack of hostility exacerbates things, since how can justice be meted out when not a single law has been broken? To all intents and purposes the administration is blind. Similarities to the plague of blindness that struck the city four years ago become apparent. In his new novel, Jos Saramago has deftly created the politician's ultimate nightmare: disillusionment not with one party, but with all, thereby rendering the entire democratic system useless. Seeing explores how simply this could be achieved and how devastating the results might be.

Seeing

Javier Marías

Presents a collection of short stories, including "While the women are sleeping," in which a man lying on the beach spectulates on the lives of another pair of beach goers, and "The Resignation Letter of Seänor de Santiesteban," in which a ghost jeopardizes the job of a new teacher.

While the Women Are Sleeping

A first English-language edition of a previously unpublished early novel by the Nobel Laureate author of Blindness shares the intertwined stories of residents at a faded Lisbon apartment building in the late 1940s. 10,000 first printing.

Skylight

Written Lives

Lidia Jorge

Annie McDermott

A Novel

The Wind Whistling in the Cranes

With the grand sweep of Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels, a masterpiece saga about two clashing families in 1990s coastal Portugal. “Because of the magnitude of her work . . . marked by originality and independence of judgment” is how the jury for the FIL Prize in Romance Languages described their honoring of Portuguese writer Lídia Jorge for this most prestigious award. For the first time, American readers can embrace the novelist’s rivetingly human narratives that have heralded so much acclaim. Exquisitely translated by Margaret Jull Costa and Annie McDermott, The Wind Whistling in the Cranes tells the story of the landlords and tenants of a derelict canning factory outside of Lisbon: the wealthy, always-scheming Leandros, and the warm Matas from Cape Verde, who have made a new home amongst machinery untouched since the Carnation Revolution. When Leandro matriarch Regina is found dead outside the building, her peculiar granddaughter Milene investigates, ultimately—catastrophically—enmeshing herself with the Matas. Perpetuating a tradition established by Gabriel García Márquez, this enduring novel of innocence and prejudice announces Jorge as an international powerhouse.

The Wind Whistling in the Cranes: A Novel

In an unnamed country on the first day of the new year, people stop dying. Amid the general public, there is great celebration: flags are hung out on balconies and people dance in the streets. They have achieved the great goal of humanity - eternal life. Death is on strike. Soon, though, the residents begin to suffer. For several months undertakers face bankruptcy, the church is forced to reinvent its doctrine, and local 'maphia' smuggle those on the brink of death over the border where they can expire naturally. Death does return eventually, but with a new, courteous approach - delivering violet warning letters to her victims. But what can death do when a letter is unexpectedly returned?

Death at Intervals

This exciting new collection celebrates the richness and variety of the Spanish short story, from the nineteenth century to the present day. Featuring over fifty stories selected by revered translator Margaret Jull Costa, it blends old favourites and hidden gems - many of which have never before been translated into English - and introduces readers to surprising new voices as well as giants of Spanish literary culture, from Emilia Pardo Bazán and Leopoldo Alas, through Mercè Rodoreda and Manuel Rivas, to Ana Maria Matute and Javier Marías. Brimming with romance, horror, history, farce, strangeness and beauty, and showcasing alluring hairdressers, war defectors, vampiric mothers, and talismanic mandrake roots, the daring and entertaining assortment of tales in The Penguin Book of Spanish Short Stories will be a treasure trove for readers.

The Penguin Book of Spanish Short Stories

Fernando Pessoa

Jerónimo Pizarro

António Cardiello

Patricio Ferrari

Complete Works of Álvaro de Campos

Paulo Coelho

An Inspirational Companion to the Alchemist

Maktub

Machado de Assis

Robin Patterson

Dom Casmurro

Between Eternities and Other Writings

Michael Levatino

Fever and Spear / Dance and Dream / Poison, Shadow, and Farewell

Your Face Tomorrow

The Fifth Mountain ; Veronika Decides to Die

The Valkyries

"Tomorrow in the Battle Think on Me" is a riveting novel of infidelity and a man trapped by a terrible secret. Marta has only just met Victor when she invites him to dinner at her Madrid apartment while her husband is away on business. When her two-year-old son finally falls asleep, Marta and Victor retreat to the bedroom. Undressing, she feels suddenly ill; and in his arms, inexplicably, she dies. What should Victor do? Remove the compromising tape from the answering machine? Leave food for the child for breakfast? These are just his first steps, but he soon takes matters further; unable to bear the shadows and the unknowing, Victor plunges into dark waters. And Javier Marias, Europe's master of secrets, of what lies reveal and truth may conceal, is on sure ground in this profound, quirky, and marvelous novel.

Tomorrow in the Battle Think on Me

Annella McDermott

A collection of Spanish fantasy fiction, including tales of ghosts, fabulous creatures, time travel, and metamorphoses.

The Dedalus Book of Spanish Fantasy

Mário de Sá-Carneiro

When in 1916, Mario de Sa-Carneiro committed suicide in Paris at the age of 26, he left behind him an extraordinary body of work, which dealt obsessively with the problems of identity, madness and solitude. Lucio's Confession is the first of his novels to be translated into English. A brilliant and remarkable short novel of great eroticism and enigmatic beauty Lucio's Confession is set in the fin de siecle artist circles of Paris and Lisbon. It deals with the friendship of two young Portuguese poets, Lucio and Ricardo de Loureiro, and their search for identity through love. When the bachelor Ricardo returns to Lisbon, to everyone's surprise he is accompanied by a wife. She, Marta, seems the perfect partner, and establishes an immediate rapport with his close friend Lucio on the latter's return from Paris. Soon they become lovers. Despite the passionate nature of their relationship, Lucio suspects that Marta is sharing her favours with Ricardo's other close friends. Something is not quite right. Where did this mysterious woman meet Ricardo, and, indeed who is she? Why does she never speak of her past and why is Ricardo conniving at her infidelity? Lucio's attempts to unravel this mystery have tragic and terrible consequences.

Lúcio's Confession

Take Six is a celebration of six remarkable Portuguese women writers: Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen, Agustina Bessa-Luís, Maria Judite de Carvalho, Hélia Correia, Teolinda Gersão and Lídia Jorge. They are all past mistresses of the short story form, and their subject matter ranges from finding one's inner fox to a failed suicide attempt to a grandmother and grandson battling the wind on a beach. Stories and styles are all very different, but what the writers have in common is their ability to take everyday life and look at it afresh, so that even a trip on a ferry or an encounter with a stranger or a child's attempt to please her father become imbued with mystery and humour and sometimes tragedy. Relatively few women writers are translated into English, and this anthology is an attempt to rectify that imbalance and to introduce readers to some truly captivating tales from Portugal.

Six Portuguese Women Writers

Take Six

For all of us who look for meaning in our lives, as we struggle along the spiritual path. This book is an invitation to each of us to live our dreams, to embrace the uncertainty of life, and to rise to meet our own unique destiny. On every page, there is an inspirational thought, which can be used to form the basis of a daily meditation.

Manual of the Warrior of Light

Marilyn Hacker

Wherever I Lie Is Your Bed, the latest volume in the Two Lines World Writing in Translation series, collects the poetry and fiction of 30 authors, giving pause to the vulnerability of borders and transposed sense of place that contemporary writers the world over feel. A special section on Palestinian poetry selected by Marilyn Hacker pays tribute to the late Mahmoud Darwish with Fady Joudah's award-winning translations. Also included are works from Syria, Cuba, Denmark, and many other countries and languages.

Margaret Jull Costa

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