The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis

Summary

Set in Lisbon in 1936, The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis follows Ricardo Reis, a doctor and poet who returns to Portugal after sixteen years in Brazil, having learned of the death of the poet Fernando Pessoa. Reis is one of Pessoa’s fictional literary alter egos, brought to life by Saramago as a character who must navigate a world increasingly shaped by political turmoil.

Staying in a Lisbon hotel, Reis spends his days wandering the city, reading newspapers, writing poetry, and becoming involved with two women: Lídia, a hotel maid, and Marcenda, a young woman with a paralysed left hand. He is also visited by the ghost of Pessoa, with whom he discusses literature, life, and death.

Beyond Reis’s private existence, Portugal is living under António de Oliveira Salazar’s authoritarian regime, while fascism is spreading across Europe and the Spanish Civil War is approaching. Through Reis’s detached observations, Saramago examines the tension between individual contemplation and historical responsibility. Blending philosophical reflection, political commentary, and the uncanny, the novel explores mortality, isolation, and the difficulty of remaining a passive observer in a world marked by injustice.