During the mid-sixteenth century, king John III presented his cousin Maximilian, the archduke of Austria, with an Asian elephant. This novel recounts the epic voyage of Salomon the elephant, and the journey it undertook to satisfy royal whims and absurd strategies. El viaje del elefante is not a historical account; it is a mix of real and imaginary facts that leads us to recognize reality and fiction as an indissoluble unity -a characteristic trait of great works of literature. It is also a reflection on the human condition, where humor and irony, marks of the ruthless clarity of the author, come together with the compassion with which Saramago views human weaknesses. Written ten years after being awarded the Nobel Prize, El viaje del elefante reveals a writer in the pinnacle of his literary splendor.
