Blindness by Jose Saramago

Blindness is a philosophical novel by Nobel Prize-winning author José Saramago, first published in 1999. The narrative unfolds in an unnamed city where an epidemic of sudden, inexplicable blindness spreads rapidly through the population. Without warning or apparent cause, people begin losing their sight, and the affliction cascades from person to person with alarming speed.

Saramago's sparse prose style strips away conventional narrative markers - there are no quotation marks, chapter breaks are minimal, and character names are largely absent - creating a disorienting reading experience that mirrors the protagonist's loss of vision. The blind are quarantined in a mental asylum by authorities desperate to contain the outbreak, transforming the novel into an examination of human nature under extreme duress. Themes of social order, compassion, survival, and the fragility of civilization emerge through the interactions of the quarantined group.

The novel has become a defining work of late 20th-century literature, studied in universities worldwide for its innovative form and profound philosophical questions about perception, community, and what sight truly means. Saramago's exploration of blindness operates both as literal catastrophe and as metaphor for society's willful ignorance and moral blindness.

• Original publication: 1999
• Author: José Saramago (1998 Nobel Prize in Literature)
• Genre: Literary fiction, philosophical novel
• Notable for unconventional narrative structure and minimalist prose
• Explores themes of isolation, human resilience, and social collapse

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