Up the Creek Book Club

Blindness

by Jose Saramago

April 2000

Synopsis

"Winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize for Literature. A city is hit by an epidemic of 'white blindness'. The blindness spreads, sparing no one. Authorities confine the blind to a vacant mental hospital secured by armed guards. Inside, the criminal element among the blind hold the rest captive: food rations are stolen, women are raped. There is one eyewitness to this nightmare who guides seven strangers through the barren streets. The developments within this oddly anonymous group -- the first blind man, the old man with the black eye patch, the girl with dark glasses, the boy with no mother, and the dog of tears -- are as uncanny as the surrounding chaos is harrowing.

A parable of loss and disorientation, of man's worst appetites and hopeless weaknesses, 'Blindness' is one of the most challenging, thought-provoking, and ultimately exhilarating novels published in any language in recent years." (Publisher)

Book Club Rating and Comments

If you or your book club has read this book and would like to share your comments, please email us at upthecreekbc@yahoo.com.