The Wind Whistling in the Cranes: A Novel [Hardcover]

From the winner of the prestigious FIL Prize in Romance Languages comes this masterpiece saga, set in the twilight of the late twentieth century, of two clashing families in coastal Portugal. A big, satisfying national saga... A long, immersive novel that parcels out information and plot turns at a methodical pace. This feels very natural: The novel is a flexible art form, of course, but among its signal virtues are patience and deliberation. Depicting the decline of an old order is something it is uniquely good at doing and there is great pleasure to be had in Ms. Jorges confident handling of the classic subject. As private desires clash with public appearance, a quiet moral accounting emerges in Milenes consciousness. 'What did goodness have to do with strength?' she wonders. 'Were the two qualities mutually repellant?' The answer is as layered and ambiguous as the rest of this fine book. The novel moves rhythmically, as if wavering under the blazing sun...This is a thrillingly immersive 'parable about life, about the struggle between rich and poor, between one race and another.' Even the trees and surrounding landscape--'mute figures who, of course, had knowledge and memory'--have their point of view. [A] captivating Romeo and Julietstyle love story set in the Algarve of Portugal . . . Jorge blends the personal drama with insight on the compounding social issues, making the account sing on several levels. The result is brilliant and trenchant. Award-winning Jorges richly layered family epic, in its first English translation, examines racial, social, and economic history in Portugal. Manages to recapitulate many of the issues present in post-colonial Portugal . . . Jorges narrative ranges from the lyrical to the mundane but conveys the universality of a specific, familial place.... A dose of near-contemporary history tempered by a page-turning family saga and romance.