The Elephant's Journey

Author: Jose Saramago

Stock information

General Fields

  • : 27.99 NZD
  • : 9780099546887
  • : Vintage
  • : Vintage
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  • : 0.149
  • : June 2011
  • : 198mm X 129mm X 13mm
  • : United Kingdom
  • : 27.99
  • : September 2011
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  • : books

Special Fields

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  • : Jose Saramago
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  • : Paperback
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  • :
  • : 869.342
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  • :
  • : 208
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Barcode 9780099546887
9780099546887

Description

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 Joao 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.

Promotion info

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.

Author description

Jose Saramago was one of the most important international writers of the last hundred years. Born in Portugal in 1922 in the small rural village of Azinhaga, he was in his fifties when he came to prominence as a writer with the publication of Baltasar and Blimunda. A huge body of work followed, which included plays, poetry, short stories, non-fiction and over a dozen novels, translated into more than forty languages, and in 1998 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. He died in June 2010.