The First Boat
By (Author) Jose Saramago
Illustrated by Amanda Mijangos
Translated by Margaret Jull Costa
Seven Stories Press,U.S.
Seven Stories Press,U.S.
11th November 2025
14th October 2025
United States
Children
Fiction
Hardback
32
Width 210mm, Height 280mm
International award winner! A beautifully illustrated story book for kids 4-8 about the importance of nature and community, from Nobel Prize winner Jose Saramago. International award winner! A beautifully illustrated story book for kids 4-8 about the importance of nature and community, from Nobel Prize winner Jose Saramago. The sea is the universe close to us. Here is the story of a man who lives at the water's edge watching the rise and fall of the shoreline. It is the sea itself that gives him everything he needs to survive, and yet it will take courage to enter the sometimes roaring waters. The man knows that this sea that gives him everything, can also take it away, but with the help of friends and with patience, he knows the sea can be a balm and a source of life. A poetic story that will resonate with anyone who has spent time near the sea, listening to the sound of the waves. With bright and beautiful water color art by Amanda Mijangos, this simple story from the Notebooks of Nobelist Saramago, will excite and intrigue the youngest readers-and all of those who read along with them.
Jose de Sousa Saramago, (November 1922-June 2010), was a Portuguese writer and recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature. His works, some of which can be seen as allegories, commonly present subversive perspectives on historic events, emphasizing the theopoetic human factor. More than two million copies of Saramago's books have been sold in Portugal alone and his work has been translated into 25 languages. He was a founding member of the National Front for the Defense of Culture in Lisbon in 1992, and co-founder with Orhan Pamuk, of the European Writers' Parliament (EWP). Margaret Jull Costa is a translator of Portuguese and Spanish fiction and poetry, including the works of Jose Saramago, E a de Queiroz, Fernando Pessoa, Paulo Coelho, Bernardo Atxaga, Carmen Martin Gaite, Javier Marias, Angela Vallvey, and Luisa Valenzuela.. Her translations have been awarded the International Dublin Literary Award, the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize (four times), and the TLS Translation Prize, among many others. She lives in England Amanda Mijangos was born in Mexico City in 1986 and studied architecture and illustration at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). She has illustrated books for publishers in several countries and has had her work recognized by the IBBY Honor List, the White Ravens Catalogue and national and international exhibitions.