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Blindness
7.5José Saramago
Saramago's 1995 novel of an unexplained blindness epidemic — social collapse and the fragility of civilization; the work that secured the 1998 Nobel.
GBM Assessment (Score: 7.5/10)
Created in Blindness a harrowing allegory of human nature under extreme duress. When an unexplained epidemic of blindness sweeps through an unnamed city, the social order collapses into brutality and chaos, revealing both the fragility of civilization and the resilience of human compassion. The novel's distinctive style—long, unpunctuated sentences flowing without paragraph breaks—immerses the reader in the disorientation of a world stripped of sight and certainty.
Dating from the post-Cold War period, Blindness serves as an allegory of moral blindness and the ease with which societies can descend into barbarism when the structures of order are removed. The novel acquired prophetic resonance during the global pandemic era, as its depiction of quarantine, institutional failure, and collective fear mirrored experiences that readers around the world would come to know firsthand.
1995
Post-Cold War optimism, the internet boom. Saramago publishes Blindness. The Unabomber manifesto is published. Szymborska and Heaney receive Nobels. Oklahoma City bombing. The Bosnian War ends. Windows 95 launches.
Awards & Adaptations
NOBEL 1998. Film (2008). Prophetically relevant in pandemic era.
Recommended Edition
Giovanni Pontiero (1997)