What if, one day, Europe was to crack along the length of the Pyrenees, separating the Iberian peninsula?
In Saramago's lovely fable, the new island is sent spinning, like a great stone raft, towards the Azores. While the authorities panic and tourists and investors flee, three men, two women and a dog are drawn together by portents that burden them with a bemusing sense of responsibility. Travelling at first packed into a car, then into a wagon, they take to the road to explore the limits of their now finite land, adrift in a world made new by this radical shift in perspective.
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### From Publishers Weekly
Portuguese novelist Saramago's surreal political fable follows the adventures of the inhabitants of the Iberian Peninsula after it literally breaks away from Europe.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
### From Library Journal
The Iberian peninsula is set adrift from Europe owing to a crack in the mountain chain of the Pyrenees. The silent dogs of Cerbere begin to bark, a sign that the universe is coming to an end. People start to wander about aimlessly. The Portuguese government resigns as it becomes clear that the new island is going to collide with the Azores. With death and destruction seemingly imminent, a group of strangers ends up together, and their lives are transformed. Saramago, Portugal's most widely read contemporary novelist, here recounts the story of Europe's historical exclusion of Portugal and Spain. The novel leaves hope for the rebirth of society and the integration of the Iberian peninsula with Europe, a hope that GATT and the World Trade Organization can bring about. Recommended for modern European fiction collections.
*Peggie Partello, Keene State Coll., N.H.*
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Description:
What if, one day, Europe was to crack along the length of the Pyrenees, separating the Iberian peninsula? In Saramago's lovely fable, the new island is sent spinning, like a great stone raft, towards the Azores. While the authorities panic and tourists and investors flee, three men, two women and a dog are drawn together by portents that burden them with a bemusing sense of responsibility. Travelling at first packed into a car, then into a wagon, they take to the road to explore the limits of their now finite land, adrift in a world made new by this radical shift in perspective. ** ### From Publishers Weekly Portuguese novelist Saramago's surreal political fable follows the adventures of the inhabitants of the Iberian Peninsula after it literally breaks away from Europe. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. ### From Library Journal The Iberian peninsula is set adrift from Europe owing to a crack in the mountain chain of the Pyrenees. The silent dogs of Cerbere begin to bark, a sign that the universe is coming to an end. People start to wander about aimlessly. The Portuguese government resigns as it becomes clear that the new island is going to collide with the Azores. With death and destruction seemingly imminent, a group of strangers ends up together, and their lives are transformed. Saramago, Portugal's most widely read contemporary novelist, here recounts the story of Europe's historical exclusion of Portugal and Spain. The novel leaves hope for the rebirth of society and the integration of the Iberian peninsula with Europe, a hope that GATT and the World Trade Organization can bring about. Recommended for modern European fiction collections. *Peggie Partello, Keene State Coll., N.H.* Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.