The Elephant's Journey - Softcover

Saramago, José

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1846553601 ISBN 13: 9781846553608

Publisher: Harvill Secker, 2010

Synopsis

Solomon the elephant's life is about to be upturned. For two years he has been in Lisbon, brought from the Portuguese colonies in India. Now King Dom João III wishes to make him a wedding gift for the Hapsburg archduke, Maximilian. It's a nice idea, since it avoids the Portuguese king offending his Lutheran cousin with an overtly Catholic present. But it means the poor pachyderm must travel from Lisbon to Vienna on foot - the only option when transporting a large animal such a long way. So begins a journey that will take the stalwart Solomon across the dusty plains of Castile, over the sea to Genoa and up to northern Italy where, like Hannibal's elephants before him, he must cross the snowy Alps. Accompanying him is his quiet keeper, Subhro, who watches while - at every place they stop - people try to turn Solomon into something he is not. From worker of holy miracles to umbrella stand, the unassuming elephant suffers the many attempts of humans to impose meaning on what they don't understand.

Saramago's latest novel is an enchanting mix of fact (an Indian elephant really did make this journey in 1551), fable and fantasy. Filled with wonderful landscapes and local colour, peppered with witty reflection on human failings and achievements, it is, in the end, about the journey of life itself.

About this title

Review:

'the novel has a charming fairy-tale quality...this is among the most charming of Saramago's works.' --TLS

'It is extremely funny. Old Saramago writes with a masterfully light hand, and the humour is tender' --Guardian

'a series of contained miracles of absurdity, quiet laughter rising out of a profound, resigned, affectionate wisdom.'
--Guardian

José Saramango wrote his final book with great panache.
--The Times

'Saramago enjoys filling out the details with improvisatory skill and imagination' --The Sunday Times

"Saramago enjoys filling out the details with improvisatory skill and imagination" --The Sunday Times

`...he has seized the opportunity to turn an unlikely tale...into something far larger even than its elephantine subject.' -- Independent

"It's an epic ramble that the Nobel Prize-winning author saw as a metaphor for life"
--Time Out

Book Description:

Nobel prizewinner Saramago always has something new up his sleeve: this time he has written a delightful historical fable about an Indian elephant called Solomon, who, in obedience to the absurd caprice of a sixteenth-century monarch, travels from Lisbon to Vienna to become a wedding gift for an emperor.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harvill Secker
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1846553601
• ISBN 13: 9781846553608
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 208