Blindness / Seeing - Tapa dura

“Saramago is the most tender of writers . . . with a clear-eyed and compassionate acknowledgment of things as they are and a quality that can only be termed wisdom. We should be grateful when it is handed to us in such generous measures.” —New York Times Book Review

José Saramago delivers a profound parable of loss and disorientation in Blindness. When a city is overcome by an epidemic of “white blindness,” only one woman is spared. She becomes a guide for a group of seven strangers and serves as the eyes and ears for the reader in this powerful portrayal of man’s worst appetites and weaknesses—and man’s ultimately exhilarating spirit. Seeing returns readers to the city—amidst a national election years later—in a satirical commentary on government in general and democracy in particular.

José Saramago (1922–2010) was the author of numerous novels, including All the Names, The Cave, and The Elephant’s Journey. In 1998 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.