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Trade Paperback
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9780547247885
Overview
Overview
Nobel Prize-winner Jose Saramago's brilliant novel poses the question--what happens when the grim reaper decides there will be no more death? On the first day of the new year, no one dies. This of course causes consternation among politicians, religious leaders, morticians, 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 policies become meaningless, and funeral parlors are reduced to arranging burials for pet dogs, cats, hamsters, and parrots.
Death sits in her chilly apartment, where she lives alone with scythe and filing cabinets, and contemplates her experiment: What if no one ever died again? What if she, death with a small d, became human and were to fall in love?
Death sits in her chilly apartment, where she lives alone with scythe and filing cabinets, and contemplates her experiment: What if no one ever died again? What if she, death with a small d, became human and were to fall in love?
- Format: TradePaperback
- Author: Saramago, José
- ISBN: 9780547247885
- Condition: Used
- Dimensions: 7.90 x 0.70
- Number Of Pages: 256
- Publication Year: 2009
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Saramago examines a question that keeps me up at night
Rachael L. - 3 years 1 month agoOn the first day of a new year in an unspecified country, death has decided to take a holiday from her work. The queen who had been on her deathbed is suddenly no longer dying. A grandfather's family has to smuggle him across the border to allow him to pass on after remaining alive well beyond the time when his illness should have taken him. Saramago describes the changes the citizens go through as they experience this strange and localized event. As the deathlessness continues on, we see how the government, the Church, the mafia, and the hospice industries evolve to deal with this strange problem. It's an excellent fake microhistory focusing on a fictional event. Saramago really delves into each part of society, and how profoundly they would be effected. Death Herself shows up in the second half of the book, and her inclusion and actions really propel into a much more personal direction.
HPB Staff Review