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Cain

By José Saramago
Series: Brief Encounters
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Brief Description
Experience a brief encounter with José Saramago, the Nobel Prize-winning author, in his provocative and philosophical retelling of the biblical story of Cain. Written in the last years of Saramago's life, Cain is a controversial and witty story of a wilful, authoritarian God. After killing his... Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$2400
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Experience a brief encounter with José Saramago, the Nobel Prize-winning author, in his provocative and philosophical retelling of the biblical story of Cain.

Written in the last years of Saramago's life, Cain is a controversial and witty story of a wilful, authoritarian God.

After killing his brother, Cain is condemned to wander the earth. As he moves through time, he encounters moments from the Old Testament—acts of faith, violence and divine judgement that he cannot accept without question. Cain is José Saramago's bold, darkly playful reimagining of a biblical outcast.

Brief Encounters: classic novellas and captivating stories, to be read in a single sitting or savoured over days.

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  • Cain
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    Cain
    Experience a brief encounter with José Saramago, the Nobel Prize-winning author, in his provocative and philosophical retelling of the biblical story of Cain. Written in the last years of Saramago's life, Cain is a controversial and witty story of a wilful, authoritarian God. After killing his brother, Cain is condemned to wander the earth. As he moves through time, he...
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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781529983678

Publisher: Vintage Publishing

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 02 July 2026

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Vintage Classics

Contributors:

  • Translated by Margaret Jull Costa

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 12.0mm

Width: 129.0mm

Height: 197.0mm

Weight: 122g

Pages: 160

Collections

Fiction General Fiction Historical Fiction Humour José Saramago Literary Fiction Penguin Books Pre-order Books Pre-order General Fiction Pre-orders Pre-orders by Release Date Series: Brief Encounters

About the Author

Jose Saramago is one of the most important international writers of the last hundred years. Born in Portugal in 1922, he was in his sixties when he came to prominence as a writer with the publication of Baltasar and Blimunda. A huge body of work followed, translated into more than forty languages, and in 1998 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Saramago died in June 2010.

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  • Manual of Painting and Calligraphy
    The very first novel written by the Nobel Prize-winning novelist Saramago. H. is a struggling artist with a commission to paint a portrait of a well-known industrialist. Whilst the industrialist sits for the portrait, H. begins an affair with his subject's secretary. Meanwhile, the painting starts to fail. For inspiration, H. takes a trip to Italy to contemplate the works...
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    International Bestseller A stunningly powerful novel of humanity's will to survive against all odds during an epidemic by a winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. "This is a shattering work by a literary master."--Boston Globe A city is hit by an epidemic of "white blindness" which spares no one. Authorities confine the blind to an empty mental hospital, but...
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    Published for the first time in English, this deeply autobiographical novel by Nobel Prize-winning writer José Saramago tells the powerful story of the Mau-Tempo family. This deeply personal work follows the changing fortunes of the Mau-Tempo family—poor, landless peasants not unlike the author's own grandparents. Saramago charts the lives of the family in Alentejo, southern Portugal, as national and international...
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