'Cain' by Jose Saramago is a retelling of the biblical story of Cain and Abel, exploring themes of good versus evil within a religious context. The book follows Cain as he embarks on a journey through time, encountering various biblical events and challenging the actions of God. Saramago's unique narrative style blends fantasy with biblical stories, offering a critical view of God and humanity's relationship with divinity.
Saramago's 'Cain' delves into the character of Cain, portraying him as a tormented soul at odds with his creator. Through Cain's wanderings and interactions with biblical figures, the book questions the nature of God, human intellect, and divine will. The novel provides a thought-provoking and humorous take on familiar biblical tales, inviting readers to reconsider their understanding of religious narratives and prompting reflection on the complexities of faith and morality.
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Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings
The book addresses themes of violence, suffering, and critiques of religious beliefs which may be sensitive for some readers.
From The Publisher:
"Saramago juxtaposes an eminently readable narrative of work and poverty, class and desire, knowledge and timelessness-one in which God, too, as he faces Cain in the wake of Noah's Ark, emerges as far more human than expected." -San Francisco ChronicleIn this, his last novel, José Saramago daringly reimagines the characters and narratives of the Old Testament, recalling his provocative The Gospel According to Jesus Christ. His tale runs from the Garden of Eden, when God realizes he has forgotten to give Adam and Eve the gift of speech, to the moment when Noah's Ark lands on the dry peak of Ararat. Cain, the despised, the murderer, is Saramago's protagonist.Condemned to wander forever after he kills his brother Abel, Cain makes his way through the world in the company of a personable donkey. He is a witness to and participant in the stories of Isaac and Abraham, the destruction of the Tower of Babel, Moses and the golden calf, the trials of Job. The rapacious Queen Lilith takes him as her lover. An old man with two sheep on a rope crosses his path. And again and again, Cain encounters a God whose actions seem callous, cruel, and unjust. He confronts Him, he argues with Him. "And one thing we know for certain," Saramago writes, "is that they continued to argue and are arguing still."A startling book-sensual, funny-and in all ways a fitting end to Saramago's extraordinary career."A winkingly blasphemous retelling of the Old Testament . . . Saramago, playfully stretching his chatty late style, pokes holes in the stated logic of the Biblical God throughout the novel." -The New Yorker
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About the Author:
JOSÉ SARAMAGO (1922-2010) was the author of many novels, among them Blindness, All the Names, Baltasar and Blimunda, and The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis. In 1998 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.MARGARET JULL COSTA has established herself as the premier translator of Portuguese literature into English today.
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