The History of the Siege of Lisbon

Raimundo Silva, an innocuous bachelor and proofreader, one day takes it upon himself to alter a key word in a history text. His revision changes a signal episode in Portuguese history and leads him into an affair of the heart that dictates an entire rewriting of history into a grand historical romance. Saramago constructs an ambitious tale around this episode, invoking broader mediations on historiography, the uses and abuses of language, and life under authoritarian rule. It is a delight f...