This is a first edition copy of José Saramago's first novel and contains an editorial binding. Within, the iconic illustrated paperback covers from Editorial Minerva are still preserved. The title chosen by the author for his inaugural book was A Viúva, which was changed to Terra do Pecado on the publisher's imposition. In his introductory note to the work, Saramago reveals some more of the secrets and adventures behind the novel. Later, the writer would say: "Poor me, I wanted to see the book published and so it came out. I knew very little about sins and, although the story includes some sinful activity, these were not things I had lived through, they were things that resulted more from reading than from personal experience. I do not include it in my bibliography although my friends insist that it's not as bad as I insist. But as it was not my title and I hate that title...". Such matters aside, Terra do Pecado, written when he only 25 years of age and spurned for so many decades, stands out as the seminal work beginning a remarkable journey for contemporary Portuguese literature by the one and only Nobel Prize winner in this language.