The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis

Set in Lisbon during 1936, a year simmering with the rise of fascism under António de Oliveira Salazar, 'The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis' follows its titular protagonist, a doctor and self-exiled poet, as he returns to Portugal from Brazil following the death of his literary creator, Fernando Pessoa. Having no intention of resuming his medical practice, Reis drifts through the city's streets and boulevards, engaging in philosophical musings, brief affairs with two women—one a hotel chambermaid, the other an enigmatic intellectual—and, most notably, in profound dialogues with the ghost of Fernando Pessoa himself. This spectral companionship allows Saramago to explore themes of identity, literary legacy, and the nature of reality. As Portugal edges towards civil war, Reis's chimerical existence becomes a mirror for the nation's uncertain future, blurring the lines between the living and the dead, the real and the imagined, in a narrative that is both deeply personal and historically resonant.