The Relic: A Novel: 07

“The Relic is the most incongruent, most extravagant, most inconceivable pandemonium that can be imagined. From farce to epic; from uproarious laughter to the most authentic pathos; from the picaresque adventure to the most sublime episodes; from the sophomoric joke to the most nobly serene painting of classical antiquity; from the most outrageous mockery to austere history; from the grotesque to the monumental; from blasphemy to hymn, this book has it all.”–J. P. de Oliveira Martins, historian and contemporary of Eça

“Within a few pages he has us straining to keep with the modernity of his thought, we are instantly impressed by the purity and imagery of his style, respectful before his restraint and economy of word and incident, above all, fascinated by the rapier-like thrust of his satire. And–yes–convulsed by his hilarious comedy.”–New York Times Book Review

“The Relic is a work of absolute comic genius, an invention provocative of outrageous laughter.”–Harold Bloom