Cain
José Saramago
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars
3.92
· 26 ratings · 176 pages · Published: 18 Oct 2009
Condemned to wander forever after he kills his brother Abel, Cain makes his way through the world in the company of a personable donkey. He is a witness to and participant in the stories of Isaac and Abraham, the destruction of the Tower of Babel, Moses and the golden calf, the trials of Job. The rapacious Queen Lilith takes him as her lover. An old man with two sheep on a rope crosses his path. And again and again, Cain encounters a God whose actions seem callous, cruel, and unjust. He confronts Him, he argues with Him. "And one thing we know for certain," Saramago writes, "is that they continued to argue and are arguing still."
A startling book- sensual, funny- in all ways a fitting end to Saramago's extraordinary career.
Tagged as:
- religion 3
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- classics 3
- funny 3
- literary fiction 2
- satire 2
- folktales & legends 2
- retellings 2
- christianity 2
- magical realism 2
- 20th century 1
- spirituality 1
- drama 1
- alternate history 1
- western 1
- industrial era 1
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- audiobook 2
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