Memorial do Convento

Set in eighteenth-century Portugal under King João V, this novel weaves together several stories. The king vows to build a huge convent at Mafra in return for an heir. Meanwhile a soldier, Baltasar, and a woman with unusual gifts, Blimunda, fall in love and join a priest who dreams of making a flying machine. Mixing real history with fantasy and irony, Saramago shows the labour of ordinary people behind monuments of power and faith. It was the book that brought him international recognition.