Manual of Painting and Calligraphy (1st Mariner Books ed.)

Manual of Painting and Calligraphy was Jos Saramagos 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 Salazars 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 Saramagos major works.

A must-have for any devotee of the great Portuguese Nobel laureate, Manual of Painting and Calligraphy is available in the United States for the first time.