Description
Book SynopsisIn an unnamed country, on the first day of the New Year, people stop dying. There is great celebration and people dance in the streets. They have achieved the great goal of humanity: eternal life. Soon, though, the residents begin to suffer. Undertakers face bankruptcy, the church is forced to reinvent its doctrine, and local 'maphia' smuggle those on the brink of death over the border where they can expire naturally.
Death does return eventually, but with a new, courteous approach – delivering violet warning letters to her victims. But what can death do when a letter is unexpectedly returned?
Trade ReviewIn the craft of the sentence, José Saramago is one of the great originals... no one writes quite like Saramago, so solicitous and yet so magnificently free. He works as though cradling a thing of magic * Guardian *
Saramago has a light, graceful, ironic touch... the paraphernalia of magical realism -- John Banville
The author's eccentric voice is as engaging as ever... a fitting cap to a body of work as playful as it is wise * Financial Times *
With characteristic dry wit he proceeds to debunk the rosy romance of eternal life * The Times *
A compelling work by a fine writer ... the unique Saramagoan style ... gives the impression of a thought experiment to which the writer is merely a catalyst. That impression is a carefully crafted one: true art conceals its art, wrote Ovid * New Statesman *
