Le intermittenze della morte

In an unnamed country, one New Year's Eve, people stop dying. At first there is celebration, then trouble: hospitals fill up, funeral parlors go bankrupt, insurance companies panic, the Church loses its basis, and the government debates what to do. Some families smuggle the dying across the border where death still works. Eventually death, personified as a woman, returns with a new method, sending purple letters of notice a week before, and then she takes an interest in a cellist. José Saramago writes in long, flowing paragraphs with minimal punctuation.

It is a good pick for readers who like philosophical fables with dry humor. It is also useful for anyone curious about what immortality would do to society.

Deep, contemplative, open-ended and thought-provoking; a moderate read.

Best for readers like The Wisdom Collector. Which reader are you?