From Publishers Weekly

This is the novel Saramago was writing when he won the Nobel Prize in 1998. La caverna has the abundant compassion, subtlety, and wit of his earlier works, such as Blindness (Ensayo sobre la ceguera, Alfaguara, 1995), with rich character development and touches of his familiar magical realism. This uncomplicated story about complex modern issues is as troubling and revelatory as it is deeply humanistic. With its tiny cast of characters and few settings, the story only appears simple: an aging artisan finds that his handmade clay utensils have ceased to satisfy consumer tastes driven by an omnipotent residential shopping center, a modern colossus of convenience. When the potter and his family must abandon their house in the country and move into that shopping center, profound disorientation and a shocking discovery set their world on edge. Saramago's eerily dystopian descriptions of the center are replete with his customary absurdist touches. An indoor zoo, beach, and roller coaster, and weather generated for the entertainment of residents create a chimerical world suggestive of Plato's cave where residents need never leave the building. This translation, in the hands of the author's wife of a dozen years, Spanish journalist Pilar del Rio, shines with admirable clarity and economy. Enthusiastically recommended for all bookstores and libraries. Bruce Jensen, UCLA Graduate Sch. of Latin American Studies and Information Studies
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Description

A small, family-owned pottery shop struggles to survive against the magnetic pull of a monstrous shopping center, aware that it no longer has a place in today's society. In a world that becomes extinct as another one thrives, this story is a striking parable of the time we live in and the true meaning of change. It should also be heeded as a warning of all we allow to be wiped out of our lives. Spanish Description: Un libro que es tambien una advertencia sobre nuestras multiples extinciones cotidianas.Una pequena alfareria, regentada por una familia consciente de que ha dejado de ser necesaria para la sociedad, frente a un centro comercial gigantesco... Un mundo en extincion frente a otro que crece. Una impresionante parabola sobre el mundo actual y sobre el verdadero significado del cambio...