Manual of Painting and Calligraphy, Paperback

Manual of Painting and Calligraphy was Jos Saramago's first novel. Written eight years before the critically acclaimed Baltasar and Blimunda, it is a story of self-discovery set against the background of the last years of Salazar's dictatorship. A struggling young artist, commissioned to paint a portrait of an influential industrialist, learns in the process about himself and the world around him. The brilliant juxtaposition of a passionate love story and the crisis of a nation foreshadows all of Saramago's major works. A must-have for any devotee of the great Portuguese Nobel laureate, Manual of Painting and Calligraphy is now available in the United States.

About the Author

JOS SARAMAGO (19222010) was the author of many books, among them Blindness and The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis. In 1998, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

GIOVANNI PONTIERO translated all of Saramago's novels until his death in 1997, just after finishing his translation of Blindness.