Blindness is so, so good. It’s unsettling, uncomfortable, and straight up scary. It’s set in a city where people start suddenly going blind with a white blindness. It’s contagious... if you’ve encountered someone with the blindness, you will go blind. The government starts quarantining the blind in an old abandoned mental hospital, but they’re too scared to have workers there, because they’d eventually go blind, so it’s just full of blind people having to fend for themselves in a new place. One person, the doctor’s wife, pretends to be blind to accompany her husband to the hospital, and is able to help him maintain some dignity, for a bit.

Things spiral, there is chaos in the hospital and outside of it, people commit unthinkable acts of violence, and yet, Saramago still manages to incorporate some dark, wry humor. This book is beautifully written, in my opinion, but it could be confusing because there isn’t a ton of punctuation and it can be hard to tell who is talking, or how exactly something is happening. There are many very long sentences and paragraphs that seem slightly daunting at first glance, but once you’re settled in to the writing, it’s brilliant. It leaves the reader, in a way, a little bit blind, and adds to the chaotic atmosphere.

Eventually, the blindness overtakes the whole city. Society is crumbling, people are dying, nobody is spared from the blindness except the doctor’s wife. She leads a group from the hospital through the chaos to try and find a place to settle and survive, fearing what will happen to them when she inevitably is blinded herself.

This book shows you the good, bad, and ugly of people and how they deal with and treat others in a horrible situation. It’s dark, but I found it thrilling and hopeful and triumphant. I am so glad I picked it up, and highly recommend it if you think you can stomach the subject matter.