"A gripping beautifully written utterly enchanting archaically romantic and at times devastating take on ordinary people struggling to survive."

--Book Magazine

"Another masterpiece from a remarkable writer who really may be as many readers believe the greatest living novelist."

--Boston Globe

"Arguably the greatest writer of our time. He throws a dazzling flash of lightning on his subjects."

--Chicago Tribune

What truly elevates-- is Saramago's style; this fantastically agile irrepressibly funny sympathetic cerebral and sometimes even corny voice."

--Christian Science Monitor

"The teensiest bit of plot is meaningfully accessibly stretched into something enormous."

--Entertainment Weekly

"We'll say it again: Saramago is the finest novelist bar none."

--starred review Kirkus

"Saramago's long fluid sentences richly stocked with folk wisdom lend his novels a rare quality of permanence."

--Los Angeles Times Book Review

Publisher Web Site, November, 2003

"Cipriano Algor, an elderly potter, lives with his daugkter Marta and her husband Marcal in a small village on the outskirts of The Center, an imposing complex of shops, apartment blocks, offices, and sensation zones. Marcal works there as a security guard, and Cipriano drives him to work each day before delivering his own humble pots and jugs. On one such visit, he is told not to make any more deliveries until further notice. People prefer plastic, he is told; it lasts longer and doesn't break." "Unwilling to give up his craft, Cipriano tries his hand at making ceramic dolls. Astonishingly, The Center places an order for hundreds of figurines, and Cipriano and Marta set to work. In the meantime, Cipriano meets a young widow at the graves of their recently departed spouses, and a hesitant romance begins." When Marta learns that she is pregnant and Marcal receives a promotion, they all move into an apartment in The Center. Soon they hear a mysterious sound of digging, and one night Marcal and Cipriano investigate. Horrified by what they discover, the family, which now includes the widow and a dog, sets off in a truck, heading for the great unknown.