Rita Desti Book order (chronological)

"When Mata Hari arrived in Paris she was penniless. Within months she was the most celebrated woman in the city. As a dancer, she shocked and delighted audiences; as a courtesan, she betwitched the era's richest and most powerful men. But as paronoia consumed a country at war, Mata Hari's lifestyle brought her under suspicion. In 1971, she was arrested in her hotel room on the Champs-Élysées and accused of espionage. Told in Mata Hari's voice through her final letter, The Spy is the unforgettable story of a woman who dared to defy convention and paid the ultimate price"--Jacket

Een pottenbakker leidt een betrekkelijk vredig leven in de schaduw van de turbulente ontwikkelingen in de moderne maatschappij. Zijn bestaan komt in gevaar als het kolossale winkelcentrum waaraan hij zijn traditionele keramiek levert niet langer van zijn handwerk gediend is. Met grote moeite past de pottenbakker zijn product aan, maar dat betekent slechts uitstel van executie: voor zijn nering is in de moderne tijd geen plaats meer. In deze allegorische roman (het winkelcentrum levert niet alleen dagelijkse artikelen, maar biedt een compleet hypermodern leven met alle comfort van dien, inclusief een strand) schetst Saramago een lugubere wereld waar de grenzen tussen werkelijkheid en illusie totaal verdwenen lijken. Samen met 'De stad der blinden' en 'Alle namen' vormt 'Het schijnbestaan' een drie-luik waarin de auteur zijn visie geeft op de huidige wereld.

After killing his brother Abel, Cain must wander for ever. He witnesses Noah's ark, the destruction of the Tower of Babel, Moses and the golden calf. He is there in time to save Abraham from sacrificing Isaac when God's angel arrives late after a wing malfunction. Written in the last years of Saramago's life, Cainwittily tackles many of the moral and logical non sequiturs created by a wilful, authoritarain God, forming part of Saramago's long argument with God and recalling his provocative novel The Gospel According to Jesus Christ.

Previously published as "The Diary of a Magus", this book tells of Coelho's initiation into a spiritual path, leading to inner development and wisdom. He shares exercises in self-control and self-discovery, which he was taught on his pilgrimage along the ancient road to Santiago.

Paulo Coelho, one of the world's best loved storytellers, is back with a riveting novel tracing the mysterious life and disappearance of Athena dubbed 'the Witch of Portobello', which was a top ten Sunday Times bestseller in hardback.

This is an adventure story about a young shepherd boy who learns how to live his dreams. This is a story which has been compared to the works of Richard Bach, and is aimed at the young and old alike.

In an unnamed country on the first day of the new year, people stop dying. For several months undertakers face bankruptcy, the church is forced to reinvent its doctrine, and local 'maphia' smuggle those on the brink of death over the border where they can expire naturally.

A driver waiting at the traffic lights goes blind. An opthamologist tries to diagnose his distinctive white blindness, but is affected before he can read the text books. It becomes a contagion, spreading throughout the city. Trying to stem the epidemic the authorities herd the afflicted into a mental asylum where the wards are terrorised by blind thugs. And when fire destroys the asylum the inmates burst forth and the last links with a supposedly civilised society are snapped.

A divorced, depressed history teacher becomes obsessed with pursuing a man who looks exactly like he did five years ago after seeing him in a video recommended by a friend.

Ricardo Reis è uno degli "eteronimi" con cui Fernando Pessoa firmava le sue opere. José Saramago, con un'invenzione vertiginosa, dà a questo nome una storia e un vissuto, facendolo tornare a Lisbona nel 1935, anno della morte di Pessoa, e facendolo morire un anno dopo, giusto in tempo per visitare la tomba del suo creatore. Nel 1936, non solo Ricardo, che non è mai nato, muore, ma inizia anche a morire la grande civiltà europea onorata da Pessoa, ora in crisi sotto il regime nazifascista di Salazar, Franco, Hitler e Mussolini, con la guerra di Spagna a segnare un destino catastrofico. L'eteronimo sopravvive brevemente al suo creatore, sufficiente per lamentare il genio sprecato e l'anacronismo di un umanesimo in un'epoca di mostri. Saramago, in questa elegia, ritrova la felicità di un'affabulazione ricca e dolorosa, in un miracolo di stile che unisce evocazioni liriche, nostalgie intimistiche e scavi abissali sul senso dell'esistere, con la durezza della denuncia politica e un impegno etico e civile esaltato dalla singolarità del contesto. La Psiche, la Cultura e la Storia si intrecciano felicemente.

A retelling of the Gospel following the life of Christ from his conception to his crucifixion. A naive Jesus is the son not of God, but of Joseph. In the desert it is not Satan, but God that Christ tussles with, an autocrat with whom he has an unbalanced and unsettled relationship.