The Implacable Order of Things

Winner of the Jose Saramago Literary Award

In an unnamed Portuguese village, against a backdrop of severe rural poverty, two generations of men and womenstruggle with love, violence, death, and--perhaps worst of all--the inescapability of fate.

A pair of twins conjoined at the pinky, a 120-year-old wise man, a shepherd turnedcuckold by a giant, and even the Devil himself make up the unforgettably oddball cast of The Implacable Order of Things. As these lost souls come together and drift apart, Jose LuisPeixoto masterfully reveals the absurd, heartbreaking, and ultimately bewitching aspects of human nature in a literary performance that heralds the arrival of an astoundingly gifted and poeticwriter.

"From the Trade Paperback edition."