A city is hit by an epidemic of “white blindness” which spares no one. Authorities confine the blind to an empty mental hospital, but there the criminal element holds everyone captive, stealing food rations and raping women. There is one eyewitness to this nightmare who guides seven strangers — among them a boy with no mother, a girl with dark glasses, a dog of tears — through the barren streets, … streets, and the procession becomes as uncanny as the surroundings are harrowing. A magnificent parable of loss and disorientation and a vivid evocation of the horrors of the twentieth century, Blindness has swept the reading public with its powerful portrayal of man’s worst appetites and weaknesses — and man’s ultimately exhilarating spirit. The stunningly powerful novel of man’s will to survive against all odds, by the winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize for Literature.
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The Nobel Prize winning Portuguese author Saramago himself is a controversial character. He was an avowed communist-pessimist-atheist who spent most of his life as a journalist and only achieved widespread public appeal at the age of sixty. His Gospel According to Jesus Christ was ridiculed by his own government for its anti-Christian views and …
Wow, this is a good one. The book follows a group of people as they succumb to blindness, with the rest of the unnamed society following shortly after. They are quarantined at first in an abandoned insane asylum for risk of infection, since others who have come into contact with them have also turned blind, and the situations they face are …
Long before the pandemic, Saramago understood how vulnerable society is to madness when a plague descends. In the era of COVID every one of us should read and re-read this masterpiece.
For me, this book is the LORD OF THE FLIES for adults. It’s a horror novel, it’s a parable, and it’s beautiful. Highly (highly) recommend.
‘…It was my fault, she sobbed, and it was true, no one could deny it, but it is also true, if this brings her any consolation, that if, before every action, we were to begin by weighing up the consequences, …
This book displays a particularly troubling imaginary event in which all but a few citizens of a particular society become “white blind”and then it carefully explores the reactions of people to this event and their experiences through people from different social backgrounds. I wonder if Saramago’s view is a bit too pessimistic for me. While …
This is one of the best books I’ve ever read
Horrible book! Horrible! Maybe very well written but it is OS NEGATIVE (It does not have ONE page where something positive happens) that forced me to throw away the book after I read it. I am a book lover and never throw away books!
When I was six, I got the greatest gift of my life.
In my neighborhood in Jerusalem at that time, it was not customary to distribute gifts on birthdays. Just like any other family with little means, the joy itself was enough. However, at six I received one; A pink pair of bicycles, huge as if they had once belonged to another girl who was fed up …
Love this book! Such an original concept and Saramago is amazing at giving details. Not a “happy feeling” book but one that will make you think and question “what would I do in that situation? How would I act? What lengths would I go to survive?”
This is a must read. Will be different for most, because end of sentences run into the next stream of words. Difficult at times,
Award winning literature.