Journey to Portugal

First edition in English. Large 8vo. Pp. xii, 452. Publisher's red cloth, lettered in gilt to spine; dark green endpapers. Illustrated with b/w photographs and maps drawn by Reginald Piggott. Index. In the pictorial dustjacket, priced at £20.00 to front flap. Translated from the Portuguese and with notes by Amanda Hopkinson and Nick Caistor. With a two-page preface specially written by the author for this English edition. First published in 1990 by Editorial Caminho, Lisbon, as Viagem a Portugal.

Setting off in his vintage motor car, as Portugal emerges from a half-century's authoritarian rule, Saramago takes stock of his homeland. Forfeiting the usual resources such as tourist guides and road maps, he scours the country with the eyes and ears of an observer fascinated by the ancient myths and history of his people. A literary hybrid of cultural history, literary nonfiction, and travelogue. By the 1998 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. "A shattering work by a literary master." –The Boston Globe