The Stone Raft

In a mythic adventure and political fable about the contemporary European community, written by a preeminent Portuguese writer, the Iberian peninsula detaches from the Continent and floats off to sea, becoming home to a group of god-like humans.

In this charming Portuguese political fable by the author of The Gospel According to Jesus Christ, pandemonium occurs when the Iberian peninsula breaks loose (literally) and goes charging off into the North Atlantic. Bureaucrats fret because the errant land mass is speeding straight toward the Azores; the Government of National Salvation plots to avoid impending disaster, but the former peninsula has its own agenda. Meanwhile, five Iberian residents separately experience assorted phenomena they believe are connected to the rupture. (One makes an ineradicable line in the earth, another becomes a human seismograph, another unravels a neverending sock, etc.) Through a series of coincidences and the efforts of a mute and nameless dog, the five find each other and begin a gypsylike peregrination to make sense of the peninsula's fractious behavior. At times an unexpected darkness intrudes on these proceedings?Saramago heckles his characters occasionally for no discernible reason?and the conclusion seems abrupt, its somber notes ringing false. However, the political reaction to this geological mishap is marvelously amusing?and greatly enhanced by the author's nimble prose and random metaphysical touches.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Acclaimed Portuguese novelist Saramago has crafted an exquisite contemporary parable. An inexplicable crack in the Pyrenees Mountains provokes excitement and scientific curiosity. As the geological fracture deepens and widens, the European community begins to disassociate itself from the calamity, and panic ensues among tourists and residents attempting to escape. When Spain and Portugal physically separate from the continent, the detached Iberian peninsula drifts aimlessly and rapidly across the sea. On the rudderless island, a group of disparate residents band together in a corporeal and spiritual bid for survival in a world spinning out of control. A hauntingly lyrical narrative with political, social, and moral underpinnings. Margaret Flanagan

The Iberian peninsula is set adrift from Europe owing to a crack in the mountain chain of the Pyrenees. The silent dogs of Cerbere begin to bark, a sign that the universe is coming to an end. People start to wander about aimlessly. The Portuguese government resigns as it becomes clear that the new island is going to collide with the Azores. With death and destruction seemingly imminent, a group of strangers ends up together, and their lives are transformed. Saramago, Portugal's most widely read contemporary novelist, here recounts the story of Europe's historical exclusion of Portugal and Spain. The novel leaves hope for the rebirth of society and the integration of the Iberian peninsula with Europe, a hope that GATT and the World Trade Organization can bring about. Recommended for modern European fiction collections.
Peggie Partello, Keene State Coll., N.H.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.