During the mid-sixteenth century, king John III of Portugal presented his cousin Maximilian, the archduke of Austria, with an Asian elephant. This novel recounts the epic voyage of Salomon the elephant, and what he endured to satisfy royal whims and absurd strategies. Saramago wrote this novel ten years after being awarded the Nobel Prize. El viaje del elefante reveals a writer in the pinnacle of his literary splendor.
