Reviews

• Fascinating and smart and provocative, and a lot of fun to dip into.

  – The New York Times

• In readably provocative style, with offbeat riffs on his life and writing, on ideas and histories … This is a bittersweet delight.

  – Boyd Tonkin, The Independent

• Saramago is one of Europe’s most original and remarkable writers ... His writing is imbued with a spirit of comic inquiry, meditative pessimism and a quietly transforming energy that turns the indefinite into the unforgettable.

  – Richard Eder, Los Angeles Times

• In the craft of the sentence, José Saramago is one of the great originals. His prose is a voice that envelops all voices: it is like the universe’s immanent murmur ... No one writes quite like Saramago, so solicitous and yet so magnificently free.

  – Steven Poole, The Guardian

• The book presents an intelligent twist on the blogs-turned-books phenomenon, proving that the two mediums are compatible beyond social curios and cultural gimmicks.... The Notebook is a unique glimpse into the candid ruminations of one of the most talented living writers.

  – Flavorwire

• I’m hard pressed to think of another writer who makes me stop as Saramago does, to go back and discover the meaning of history or allegory in all its wild newness.

  – Julian Evans, Financial Times

• Saramago enjoys picking up a passing thought or an incident and running with it, confident in his political outrage, calm in his appreciation of friends, considered in his aphoristic criticism of culture.

  – Iain Finlayson, The Times [London]

• Saramago is a writer, like Faulkner, so confident of his resources and ultimate destination that he can bring any improbability to life.

  – John Updike, The New Yorker

• Beautifully crafted and honest, Saramago’s Notebook is elegant in tone and style while clearly conveying a legend’s take on our evolving society.

  – Publishers Weekly

• Impenitently enraged and tender.

  – Umberto Eco

• The most gifted novelist alive in the world today.

  – Harold Bloom