The Implacable Order of Things
A Novel
Published on 29. July 2008
192 pages
978-0-385-52678-4 (ISBN)
Description
Winner of the José Saramago Literary Award In an unnamed Portuguese village, against a backdrop of severe rural poverty, two generations of men and women struggle with love, violence, death, and-perhaps worst of all-the inescapability of fate. A pair of twins conjoined at the pinky, a 120-year-old wise man, a shepherd turned cuckold by a giant, and even the Devil himself make up the unforgettably oddball cast of The Implacable Order of Things. As these lost souls come together and drift apart, José Luís Peixoto masterfully reveals the absurd, heartbreaking, and ultimately bewitching aspects of human nature in a literary performance that heralds the arrival of an astoundingly gifted and poetic writer.
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Additional editions
Jose Luis Peixoto
The Implacable Order of Things
Book
08/2009
Anchor Books
€18.50
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Jose Luis Peixoto
The Implacable Order of Things
Book
08/2008
Nan A. Talese
€41.12
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Persons
José Luís Peixoto was born in 1974 in the Portuguese region of Alentejo. A poet, playwright, and novelist, he has received numerous awards for his writing. Published and acclaimed in more than twelve languages, The Implacable Order of Things won the José Saramago Prize in 2001.
Content
- Intro
- TITLE PAGE
- Contents
- BOOK ONE
- TODAY THE WEATHER DIDN'T fool me. The afternoon is perfectly.
- THE THREE MEN WERE LEANING against one of the large.
- BEFORE MY FATHER WENT TO the grave, the brothers came.
- I THINK: PERHAPS SUFFERING is tossed by handfuls over the.
- THEY REMAINED QUIET, THE three old men, for a long.
- THROUGHOUT THE REST OF the summer, the brothers often passed.
- AS THE JUST-ARRIVED SHEEP greedily ripped into the grass with.
- YESTERDAY I HEARD A WAGON go by in the middle.
- PEOPLE ARE A SMALL PART OF the world, and I.
- WE WEREN'T IN TIME TO catch a ride with the.
- BY THE FINGER THAT JOINS US, your death has entered.
- JOSÉ'S SHEEPDOG WAS LYING down, neck raised, in a noble.
- BOOK TWO
- THE EARTH WAS ITS OWN SILENCE on fire. The sun.
- THE MORNING ENTERED through the open windows, filling up the.
- I DON'T REMEMBER FOR CERTAIN what other thoughts I had,.
- THE APPRENTICE LEFT, SALOMÃO left, and Master Rafael kept running.
- TONIGHT MY BODY DIDN'T ASK for sleep. I lay down.
- IT WAS SATURDAY. NO ONE would dare say it, but.
- IT WAS ONE OF MY WORK DAYS at the Mount.
- MY HANDS. MY ARMS. THE SUN. I feel my arms.
- DAWN. THE GRASS SLOWLY lifting. Rustling sounds from far away,.
- I OPENED MY EYES. I HEARD the shouts on the.
- HE LOOKED AT ME WITH A SERIOUS air. He ran.
- AND THE WORLD ENDED. INEXPLICABLY, or without an explanation that.
- A NOTE ABOUT THE AUTHOR
- COPYRIGHT
