An Unexpected Light

Nobel Prize winner José Saramago tells a quiet and poetic story, an excerpt from his book Small Memories, of a lasting childhood experience of simple, soulful joy.

The narrator's memories of a lost childhood paradise focus on two glorious days when he helped his uncle take some piglets to the market in Santarém. They traverse dusty roads, sleep in a barn and awake to a miraculous moonglow, and hear the animals in their “infinite conversations.” The journey, the night, the wind, the light. . . . This poetic story is an unforgettable adventure narrated by José Saramago and presented alongside Armando Fonseca’s fanciful and evocative illustrations.

A very special gift for readers of all ages."With its mix of peasant life, boyhood adventure and wide-eyed wonder, [his memoir Small Memories] makes perfect fodder for a couple of new children's books....Saramago may be gone, but it's lovely to see his work resurrected for a new generation."—The New York Times Book ReviewJosé de Sousa Saramago, (November 1922-June 2010), was a Portuguese writer and recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature. His works, some of which can be seen as allegories, commonly present subversive perspectives on historic events, emphasizing the theopoetic human factor. More than two million copies of Saramago's books have been sold in Portugal alone and his work has been translated into 25 languages. He was a founding member of the National Front for the Defense of Culture in Lisbon in 1992, and co-founder with Orhan Pamuk, of the European Writers' Parliament (EWP).

Margaret Jull Costa is a translator of Portuguese and Spanish fiction and poetry, including the works of José Saramago, Eça de Queiroz, Fernando Pessoa, Paulo Coelho, Bernardo Atxaga, Carmen Martín Gaite, Javier Marías, Angela Vallvey, and Luisa Valenzuela.. Her translations have been awarded the International Dublin Literary Award, the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize (four times), and the TLS Translation Prize, among many others. She lives in England

Armando Fonseca studied philosophy at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. He works as an illustrator across different media: illustrated books, albums, covers, press work. Armando’s work has been exhibited in Mexico and abroad and has been recognized at the Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival, the Bratislava International Biennial of Illustration, Iberoamerica Ilustra, the Illustrators Show of the Bologna Fair, and at the Shanghai Book Fair. He created the collective CAJA with the illustrators Juan Palomino and Amanda Mijangos.