Baltasar and Blimunda - Jose Saramago

'Baltasar and Blimunda has received almost universal acclaim in Portugal as the first truly important work of fiction published there since the collapse of dictatorship and censorship in 1974. Saramago has invented a plot which launches a flying machine in the air . . . introduces real historical figures, notably Scarlatti and Padre Bartolomeu Loureno de Gusmao, who attempted to construct just such a flying machine, and was pursued by the Inquisition. Principally, though, it focuses on Baltasar and Blimunda, two ordinary victims of their time - the first lost a hand in war, the second is the daughter of another victim of the Inquisition - who fly the machine with Padre Bartolomeu. As they do so, they launch themselves into the future . . . This is a strange but exciting novel, and it is hard to imagine a better translation than Giovanni Pontiero's. Saramago's voice has been carefully and precisely conveyed' Times Literary Supplement

'Original and brilliant. Set in eighteenth-century Portugal when the terror of the Inquisition was at its height . . . Saramago's optimism lies in the power of individual faith, in a padre's dream of building a flying machine and in the joy and strength of Baltasar and Blimunda's love for one another. The colour and vivacity of Saramago's imagination inspires and entertains' Sunday Times

'Brilliant . . . much reverberates in memory after reading this enchanting novel, but most of all the love story which soars over the rest of the action like a flute across a heavy orchestra' New York Times Book Review

'Saramago is a writer of formidable talent and extraordinary imagination' La Repubblica

'Lovers of Garca Mrquez will be enchanted by the wonder of this novel' Sunday Times