All The Names
Published on 1. June 2000
Book
Paperback/Softback
256 pages
978-1-86046-720-2 (ISBN)
Description
A subtle and insightful story about boredom, passion, curiosity and memory from the Nobel Prize-winner Jose Saramago
Senhor Jose is a lonely civil servant who spends his days labouring in the labyrinthine stacks of Lisbon's central registry. Among the file-cards for the living and the dead, one - of an apparently ordinary woman - will transform his life. Breaking away from his strict routine, Jose resolves to track the woman down, obsessively following a thread of clues in a bid to rescue her from an oblivion deeper than the grave.
'When a very good book finds us at just the right moment in life, it can become stitched into our own identity. All the Names - a novel about identity and connection - has become stitched into mine' Samantha Harvey, Independent
Senhor Jose is a lonely civil servant who spends his days labouring in the labyrinthine stacks of Lisbon's central registry. Among the file-cards for the living and the dead, one - of an apparently ordinary woman - will transform his life. Breaking away from his strict routine, Jose resolves to track the woman down, obsessively following a thread of clues in a bid to rescue her from an oblivion deeper than the grave.
'When a very good book finds us at just the right moment in life, it can become stitched into our own identity. All the Names - a novel about identity and connection - has become stitched into mine' Samantha Harvey, Independent
Reviews / Votes
A novel that has soul, which Saramago offers to his readers with all his witty, intelligent, tender and magical generosity -- Samantha Harvey * Independent * Offers an unearthly, muted beauty; a freedom from the obvious, the ideological and trivial; an atmosphere of profound serenity, and a benevolent humor * Literary Review * Both delightful and unsettling which is perhaps the mark of true literature -- Anthony Daniels * Sunday Telegraph * A tantalizing novel...shifting and teasing, full of metaphorical labyrinths and false trails * Herald * It is the marriage of the living and the dying...that so strongly characterizes the writing of Jose Saramago * New Statesman * The Swedish Academy's citation called his novels "parables sustained by imagination, compassion and irony." It is a description which perfectly captures his latest novel * The Times *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Vintage Publishing
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 196 mm
Width: 128 mm
Thickness: 40 mm
Weight
191 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-86046-720-2 (9781860467202)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
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Person
Jose Saramago is one of the most important international writers of the last hundred years. Born in Portugal in 1922, he was in his sixties when he came to prominence as a writer with the publication of Baltasar and Blimunda. A huge body of work followed, translated into more than forty languages, and in 1998 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Saramago died in June 2010.