Description
The Cave by Nobel Prize-winning author José Saramago is a thought-provoking literary novel about consumerism, human dignity and the cost of surrendering to a world dominated by commercial power.
Cipriano Algor is an ageing potter whose livelihood depends on the Centre, an enormous and ever-expanding commercial complex. When it loses interest in his traditional pottery, he and his daughter try to save their fortunes by producing ceramic figurines instead. At first, the Centre orders them in vast quantities, only to cancel the arrangement once the work is complete. With his livelihood gone, Cipriano reluctantly moves with his family into the Centre’s soulless megaplex, where he makes a disturbing discovery hidden deep within its artificial world.
Blending an unsettling vision of a society ruled by consumption with the intimate story of a family struggling to preserve its independence, Saramago explores what happens when people become expendable to the systems they serve. Both a modern parable and a tender story of love and resilience, The Cave asks what makes a life meaningful in a world increasingly detached from human needs.
