Blindness

Blindness is a 1995 novel by the Portuguese writer José Saramago. It is one of his best-known books, alongside All the Names and The Gospel According to Jesus Christ. Saramago himself described it as the novel that portrayed, criticised and unmasked a rotten and disjointed society.

The story begins with an unexplained epidemic of white blindness that strikes almost everyone in an unnamed city. The first to fall ill are a man who goes blind at a traffic light, the ophthalmologist who treats him, several of the doctor's patients, and others who happen to be thrown together. The only person who escapes the affliction is the doctor's wife, who hides her sight in order to accompany her husband to the place where the blind are interned. The narration is omniscient and rarely settles on her, yet none of the characters receives a name: they are identified by traits or roles, such as