内容简介
José Saramago was eighteen months old when he moved from thevillage of Azinhaga with his father and mother to live in Lisbon.But he would return to the village throughout his childhood andadolescence to stay with his maternal grandparents, illiteratepeasants in the eyes of the outside world, but the fount ofknowledge, affection, and authority to young José.
Shifting back and forth between childhood and his teenage years,between Azinhaga and Lisbon, this is a mosaic of memories, a simplytold, affecting look back into the author’s boyhood: the tragicdeath of his older brother at the age of four; his mother pawningthe family’s blankets every spring and buying them back in time forwinter; his beloved grandparents bringing the weaker piglets intotheir bed on cold nights; and Saramago’s early encounters withliterature, from teaching himself to read by deciphering articlesin the daily newspaper, to poring over an entertaining dialogue ina Portuguese-French conversation guide, not realizing that he wasin fact reading a play by Molière.
Shifting back and forth between childhood and his teenage years,between Azinhaga and Lisbon, this is a mosaic of memories, a simplytold, affecting look back into the author’s boyhood: the tragicdeath of his older brother at the age of four; his mother pawningthe family’s blankets every spring and buying them back in time forwinter; his beloved grandparents bringing the weaker piglets intotheir bed on cold nights; and Saramago’s early encounters withliterature, from teaching himself to read by deciphering articlesin the daily newspaper, to poring over an entertaining dialogue ina Portuguese-French conversation guide, not realizing that he wasin fact reading a play by Molière.