Notebooks

“On the night of November 22, 2007, at four in the morning, I 'died' and was 'resurrected' only nine hours later. A complete organic collapse, a posture in body functions that took me to the last threshold of life, where it was too late to say goodbye. I don't remember anything. Pilar was there, my aunt María was there, both of them, in front of a body that had become motionless, a cadaver abandoned by all forces and whose soul seemed to have vanished, a cadaver that could not be helped other than being alive. They are the ones who tell me today what those hours were like. Mother, my grandson, came the evening of the next day. Father and grandfather were still as pale as the flame of a candle threatening to be consumed by the wind of its own breathing. Then I realized that my body would be placed in the library, surrounded by books and, let's say, other flowers. I ran away. A year of slow, very slow recovery, as the doctors said, gave me back my health, my energy, my agility of thought, and it also gave me back that universal remedy: work. I took my own 'Elephant Journey' towards life, not death, and here I am. At your disposal.”

“Saramago's Notebooks is not a sad book [...] it is not an angry book, it is just a farewell.”

Pilar del Río (wife)

(From the Promotional Bulletin)

Dough Type: 2. Dough

First Printing Year: 2017

Number of Printings: 2. Printing