Posthumous book by José Saramago will be launched in Brazil – Correio da Bahia

The Portuguese José Saramago (1922-2010) was especially moved by humanitarian issues when writing. Thus, in 2009, while still battling a serious illness, started the draft of a novel in which treat of the arms trade. The starting point was a story I thought I had read the novel L’Espoir, André Malraux: A bomb dropped during the Spanish Civil War that, besides not having exploded even won an ironic note: “This bomb did not explode.”

So, adding the issue that intrigued not know any case of strikes in the arms industry, the story inspired pikes, halberds, Rifles, Shotguns romance, which Saramago wrote only first three chapters, interrupted by death of the writer, in June 2010.

Photo: Handout

” The writing was a definitive version. The novel would not be complete, but it is now published is a finished text. The death did not interrupt – Saramago stopped writing because he needed change paths, which required an investigation. It was at this point when death came to him, “says Pilar del Río, woman writer, justifying the publication of the book, released here by Companhia das Letras, while leaving editions in Portugal and also in Spanish.

All versions bring texts from Spanish essayist Fernando Gómez Aguilera, the Italian writer Roberto Saviano (Gomorrah, Zero Zero Zero), as well as illustrations of the German novelist Günter Grass. The Brazilian is more plump, it reproduces Article anthropologist Luiz Eduardo Soares. “These co-authors were chosen by the affective and intellectual proximity,” Pilar says.

“Saviano Saramago did not know personally, but they corresponded and Saramago defended the right of his Italian colleague write even pressed by the mob, and press to protect society who reveals the dark side this society. ”

Already Aguilera personally accompanied the creative process by visiting the couple at their residence. “When I worked as an editor, Saramago published books Günter and admired as few” complete Pilar. “Already Luis Eduardo has very clear ideas about violence and the response that society can give, what was absolutely necessary.”

The three chapters left by Saramago feature Artur Semedo Peace, factory worker weapons Productions Bellona SA Employee exemplary, never questioned the purpose of the products that helps build, leading to irritation of his wife, Felicia, radical pacifist.

Pillar believes that the novel, whose title is taken from Exhortation of War, Gil Vicente, indicates a similar way of Cain. “If, for Cain, the central issue is the power that religions have on their consciences in halberds, the focus returns to power, now using guns to enforce religious rules and keep men under control.”

The book also contains notes made by the author, including how the intended end it: “The book ends with a resounding ‘Fuck you’, uttered by Felicia. A copy shot. ”