A wry, fictional account of the life of Christ by Nobel laureate Jose
Saramago.
A brilliant skeptic, Jose Saramago envisions the life of Jesus Christ
and the story of his Passion as things of this earth: A child crying,
the caress of a woman half asleep, the bleat of a goat, a prayer uttered
in the grayish morning light. His idea of the Holy Family reflects the
real complexities of any family, and, as only Saramago can, he imagines
them with tinges of vision, dream, and omen.
The result is a deft psychological portrait that moves between poetry
and irony, spirituality and irreverence of a savior who is at once the
Son of God and a young man. In this provocative, tender novel, the
subject of wide critical discussion and wonder, Saramago questions the
meaning of God, the foundations of the Church, and human existence
itself.