The Double

Saramago, Jose

ISBN 10: 0151010404 / ISBN 13: 9780151010400

Published by Harcourt, 2004

About this Item

A history teacher in a secondary school, divorced and in an unsatisfying relationship, watches a video that a friend recommends. He is not impressed, but as he sleeps, he is awakened by strange noises. He finds the VCR is replaying the video, and he sees himself - five years younger - in the video. He sets out to find his double. Translated from Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa. 324 pages. List price $25.00. Seller Inventory # 11768

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Double

Publisher: Harcourt

Publication Date: 2004

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: New

Dust Jacket Condition: As New

Edition: 1st Edition

About this title

Synopsis:

Tertuliano Máximo Afonso is a history teacher in a secondary school. He is divorced, involved in a rather one-sided relationship with a bank clerk, and he is depressed. To lift his depression, a colleague suggests he rent a certain video. Tertuliano watches the film and is unimpressed. During the night, noises in his apartment wake him. He goes into the living room to find that the VCR is replaying the video, and as he watches in astonishment he sees a man who looks exactly like him-or, more specifically, exactly like the man he was five years before, mustachioed and fuller in the face. He sleeps badly.

Against his own better judgment, Tertuliano decides to pursue his double. As he establishes the man's identity, what begins as a whimsical story becomes a dark meditation on identity and, perhaps, on the crass assumption behind cloning-that we are merely our outward appearance rather than the sum of our experiences.

Book Description:

Published in hardcover by Harcourt, 2004, 0-15-101040-4