José Saramago

"On the first day of the new year, no one dies. This, understandably, causes consternation among politicians, religious leaders, funeral directors, and doctors. Among the general public, on the other hand, there is initially celebration - flags are hung out on balconies, people dance in the streets. They have achieved the great goal of humanity: eternal life. Then reality hits home - families are left to care for the permanently dying, life-insurance...

"A previously unpublished novel by a literary master, Skylight tells the intertwined stories of the residents of a faded apartment building in 1940s Lisbon. Silvestre and Mariana, a happily married elderly couple, take in a young nomad, Abel, and soon discover their many differences. Adriana loves Beethoven more than any man, but her budding sexuality brings new feelings to the surface. Carmen left Galicia to marry humble Emilio, but hates Lisbon...

From the Nobel Prize-winning author: “A capacious, funny, threatening novel” of wandering souls and political upheaval in 1930s Portugal (The New York Times Book Review).
The year is 1936, and the dictator António de Oliveira Salazar is establishing himself in Portugal, edging his country toward civil war. At the same time, Dr. Ricardo Reis has returned home to Lisbon after a long...

Un precioso y poético álbum escrito por José Saramago con evocadoras ilustraciones de Amanda Mijangos. «Antes de construir el primer barco, el hombre se sentó en la playa a mirar el mar». Esta es la historia de un hombre que vive al lado del mar. Es el mismo mar el que le da todo lo que necesita para sobrevivir. La vida espera, pero hace falta coraje para adentrarse en las aguas sonoras de este océano. El hombre sabe que este mar que le da...

A “marvelously amusing” political fable in which part of the European continent breaks off and drifts away on its own (Publishers Weekly, starred review).
 
A Nobel Prize winner who has been called “the García Márquez of Portugal” (New Statesman) chronicles world events on a human scale in this exhilarating allegorical novel.
 
One day, quite inexplicably,...

During the town elections of a nameless city, most of its inhabitants, by their own individual choices, decide to exert their voting rights in an unexpected way. The dirty and sneaky officials in power start making arrangements to eliminate the guilty parties; and if they cannot find any, they will have to make them up.

On election day in the capital, it is raining so hard that no one has come out to vote. The politicians are growing jittery. Should they reschedule for another day? Around three o'clock, the rain finally stops. At four, voters rush to the polling stations, as if ordered to appear. But when the ballots are counted, more than 70% are blank. The citizens are rebellious. A state of emergency is declared. The president proposes that a wall be built around...

A city is ravaged by an epidemic of 'white blindness.' Those first afflicted are quarantined by the authorities in an abandoned mental hospital where societal norms quickly breaks down. Criminals and the physically powerful prey upon the weak, hoarding the meager food rations and committing horrific acts. Inside the hospital is one eyewitness to the nightmare. Following her husband into the hospital, a woman whose sight is unaffected by the plague...