Small Memories pdf

José Saramago is a Portuguese writer and journalist born on November 16, 1922 in the Arinaga region (central Portugal) to a family of poor farmers. * He began his life as a locksmith, then as a journalist and translator, before devoting his time entirely to literature. He published his first novel, The Land of Sin, in 1947, and stopped writing for nearly twenty years. In 1966, he published his first poetry collection, Possible Poems. He has published about twenty books and is considered by critics to be one of the most important writers in Portugal thanks to his polyphonic novels, which retrace Portuguese history with a subtle irony close to the style adopted by Voltaire. - A member of the Portuguese Communist Party since 1959. - Received the International PEN Club Prize in 1982 and the Portuguese Camويسes Prize in 1995 - In October 1998 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, for his novel The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis - He was skeptical about the official account of the events September 11, 2001 - Saramago passed away on May 18, 2010

Small Memories pdf by Jose Saramago

José Saramago was eighteen months old when he moved from the village of Azinhaga with his father and mother to live in Lisbon. But he would return to the village throughout his childhood and adolescence to stay with his maternal grandparents, illiterate peasants in the eyes of the outside world, but a fount of knowledge, affection, and authority to young José. Shifting back and forth between childhood and his teenage years, between Azinhaga and Lisbon, this is a mosaic of memories, a simply told, affecting look back into the author’s boyhood: the tragic death of his older brother at the age of four; his mother pawning the family’s blankets every spring and buying them back in time for winter; his beloved grandparents bringing the weaker piglets into their bed on cold nights; and Saramago’s early encounters with literature, from teaching himself to read by deciphering articles in the daily newspaper, to poring over an entertaining dialogue in a Portuguese-French conversation guide, not realizing that he was in fact reading a play by Molière. Written with Saramago’s characteristic wit and honesty, Small Memories traces the formation of an artist fascinated by words and stories from an early age and who emerged, against all odds, as one of the world’s most respected writers.