The Lizard
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
A story by Nobel Prize-winning writer Jose Saramago, gorgeously illustrated in woodcuts by one of Brazil's most famous artists.
When a lizard appears in the neighborhood of Chiado, in Lisbon, it surprises passers-by, and mobilizes firefighters and the army. With a clear and precise style, the fable offers a multitude of senses, reaching audiences of all ages. "The Lizard" is a short story included in A Bagagem do Viajante (1973), a volume that brought together the Saramago chronicles for the newspaper A Capital and the weekly Jornal do Fundão between 1971 and 1972. Translated by Nick Caistor and Lucia Caistor, The Lizard, is an illustrated version of the chronicle by J. Borges.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Ably translated by the Caistors, this surreal fable by Noble Prize winner Saramago imagines a monstrously outsize military response to the appearance of a lizard. The "superb creature" is first spotted in the Lisbon neighborhood of Chiado. "This is a fairy tale," Saramago opens; "in what other kind of story would a lizard appear in Chiado?" In folk-style woodcut figures by Brazilian artist Borges, the lizard is sometimes black, sometimes rust-colored. "It stood there in the middle of the street, its mouth half-open, flicking its forked tongue." People flee, rumors fly ("Some said the lizard was poisonous, others that its scales were bulletproof"), emergency squads assemble, and armored cars and military planes approach. But the tale's fairies have other plans: the lizard morphs, morphs again, then vanishes altogether, much to its attackers' confusion. First published in the 1970s, when Portugal was ruled by a dictatorship, Saramago's tale envisions a state so insecure that it is threatened by anything unknown. While some readers may find the mayhem disturbing rather than comic, the fable serves as a reminder that in toxic political situations, nothing not even a fairy lizard is safe. Ages 6 9.
