“It is quite possible that the pact that some say exists between god and men contains only two articles, namely, you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.” “…the lord is not a person to be trusted.” “You gods should still take the blame for all the crimes committed in your name or because of you…” “Poor me, said Eve, what a bad beginning, and what a sad fate will be mine.” “But why put to the test the very thing you yourself created? Why did you kill all those innocent children when you destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah? Why in the world would you ask Abraham to kill his son? What did Job ever do to you that you made him suffer so? Why did you make me slay my brother? I had no choice. During his travels he argues with various angels and occasionally with God.

Cain watches folks worship the golden calf and he see the walls of Jericho tumble.Ĭain is quite a kibitzer. He becomes a paramour of Lilith and even has a son by her. Cain works on the construction of Noah’s ark. He’s a laborer for Job and watches his sufferings. He watches the Tower of Babel being constructed. In his wanderings he stumbles across Abraham ready to sacrifice his son Isaac. (In the book, the author does not capitalize proper names but I did so because it looks odd otherwise.)Ĭain slays his brother, Abel, and then travels through various times and places of the Old Testament. It’s a re-imagining of the Old Testament (which the author has called the Book of Nonsense) in the way that the author’s “The Gospel According to Jesus Christ” re-imagined the New.

Saramago cain