If in Blindness blindness was universal, and in Seeing enlightenment was widespread, in Saramago's new novel, death operates intermittently in a small country of 10 million inhabitants, bringing despair, after the initial euphoria, to insurance companies, funeral contractors, nursing homes, hospitals, the church, the government, and families.

The mafia (spelled with a double 'f' as the author prefers) will take on the task of providing solutions, but death will counterattack in the form of a mysterious and enchanting woman...

The most recent and profoundly human novel by the great Nobel Prize-winning author.