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Fernando Gómez Aguilera Spain
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Fernando Gómez Aguilera was born in San
Felices de Buelna, Cantabria, in 1962. He is a poet, essayist, and philologist
and has worked as professor of Spanish literature. He is the director of the César
Manrique Foundation and sits on the board of the José Saramago
Foundation. In 2007, he put together a large-scale exhibition dedicated to
Saramago's life and literary trajectory.
The
book José Saramago: La consistencia de los sueños. Biografía
cronológica ("José Saramago: The Consistency of Dreams. Chronological
Biography"), which the exhibition of the same name gave rise to, passes
through the various stages of life and work of the 1998 Nobel Prize winner. It
is based on books published by and about the writer, press cuttings,
interviews, unpublished material such as Saramago's own archives, personal
diaries, notebooks, letters, and many photos of his private and public life, as
a writer and as an engagé citizen.
José
Saramago en sus palabras ("José Saramago in
his Own Words") consists of a collection of statements made by the author
and assembled from the print media from the second half of the 1970s to the
beginning of 2009. Polemical, provocative, combative, the writer always
exercized his critical thought without censure, saying exactly what he
believed. The personal declarations collected here make up a precious source of
information and a presentation of his ethical ideas and values, as well as a
compendium of wisdom.
In this work, Gómez Aguilera not only demonstrates the absolute
coherence of José Saramagos's life and work but also that the great success he
experienced in the last two decades of his life was not a product of good
fortune but of all the work and all the endeavour invested in the previous
years, until he found his style and his own voice, which was to reveal him as
the genius that he is.
C. Macías, University of Málaga
Original
editions and rights sold:
José Saramago. La consistencia de los sueños. Biografía cronológica.
Arecife,
Lanzarote: Fundación César Manrique 2010; Madrid: Alfaguara 2010, 223 p.
Portugal:
Caminho 2008
José
Saramago en sus palabras
Madrid:
Alfaguara 2010, 549 p.
Brazil:
Companhia das Letras 2010 ● Portugal: Caminho 2010