num_pages: 352
description: Theirs was a love affair that began at an auto-da-fe as Sebastiana Maria de Jesus looked into the crowd on her way to be burned at the stake. She saw her daughter Blimunda beside a scruffy soldier with only one hand, Baltasar, and wondered what would become of them.Set in eighteenth-century Portugal, this is a powerful love story that juxtaposes the infernal twilight of the Inquisition with the seemingly heretical dawn of flight. Fifty thousand labourers haul great slabs of stone across mountains to build the King's convent while Padre Barolomeu Lourenco devises a magical flying machine Driven by their passion, by Baltasar's strength and Blimunda's visionary powers, the lovers become involved in both projects, travelling through a rich, irreverent and dangerous world.
language: English
title: Baltasar and Blimunda
titlecomplete: Baltasar and Blimunda
characters: Blimunda, Baltasar
genres: Fiction, Historical, Magical Realism, Romance, Literature, Classics, Portugal, Nobel Prize, Historical Fiction, Portuguese Literature
ratings_count: 21815
places: Portugal, Lisbon
awards: awardedAt: 378720000000
name: Prémio Literário Município de Lisboa
category: Prosa de Ficção, awardedAt: 410256000000
name: Prémio PEN Clube Português da Novelística
publisher: Jonathan Cape