Baltasar And Blimunda

Baltasar And Blimunda by Jose Saramago From the recipient
of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature a
“brilliant…enchanting novel” (New York Times Book
Review) of romance deceit religion and magic set in
eighteenth-century Portugal at the height of the
Inquisition. National bestseller. Translated by Giovanni
Pontiero. When King and Church exercise absolute power
what happens to the dreams of ordinary people? In early
eighteenth century Lisbon Baltasar a soldier who has lost
a hand in battle falls in love with Blimunda a young girl
with strange visionary powers. From the day that he
follows her home from the auto-da-f? where her mother is
condemned and sent into exile the two are bound body and
soul by a love of unassailable strength. A third party
shares their supper that evening: Padre Bartolemeu
Louren?o whose fantasy is to invent a flying machine. As
the inquisition rages and royalty and religion clash they
pursue his impossible not to mention heretical dream of
flight.