''The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis'' (in

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

: ''O Ano da Morte de Ricardo Reis'') is a

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast A ...

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

by the

novelist

José Saramago José de Sousa Saramago, GColSE ComSE GColCa (; 16 November 1922 – 18 June 2010), was a Portuguese writer and recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature for his "parables sustained by imagination, compassion and irony ith which heco ...

, the winner of the 1998

Nobel Prize in Literature ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , caption = , awarded_for = Outstanding contributions in literature , presenter = Swedish Academy , holder = Annie Ernaux (2022) , location = Stockholm, Sweden , year = 1901 , ...

. The book chronicles the final year in the life of the title character, Ricardo Reis, one of the many heteronyms used by the Portuguese writer

Fernando Pessoa Fernando António Nogueira Pessoa (; 13 June 1888 – 30 November 1935) was a Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic, translator, publisher, and philosopher, described as one of the most significant literary figures of the 20th century and ...

. In the novel, Ricardo Reis returns to

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

from

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, upon catching wind of Pessoa's death. While there, he chooses not to resume practicing medicine, but rather takes up residence in a hotel, where he wastes his days reading newspapers and wandering the streets of Lisbon. The novel was translated into English by

Giovanni Pontiero Giovanni Pontiero (10 February 1932 – 10 February 1996) was a Scots-Italian scholar and translator of Portuguese fiction. Most notably, he translated the works of José Saramago and Clarice Lispector, two celebrated names in Portuguese-language ...

in 1991 and won the

Independent Foreign Fiction Prize The ''Independent'' Foreign Fiction Prize (1990–2015) was a British literary award. It was inaugurated by British newspaper ''The Independent'' to honour contemporary fiction in translation in the United Kingdom. The award was first launched i ...

Themes

The novel addresses several powerful literary themes, though mostly indirectly. For instance, Reis reads of the events leading to the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...

, and he sees floods of

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

immigrants arrive in Lisbon seeking refuge, but he never expresses strong feelings or even a cogent understanding of the meaning of the conflict. Reis also carries on a lackluster love affair, but even in what seems to be his most intimate relationships, he is continually and voluntarily alienated from society. The most revealing glimpse of Reis is through a series of conversations with the spirit of Fernando Pessoa, over the course of which Reis loses a clear concept of the nature of life and death and the difference between the two. In the novel's final scene, Reis "dies" by calmly putting on his jacket and following Pessoa into the graveyard. Ultimately, the novel is a story of one man's attempt to resist any sort of cultural contextualization and reject any place in society whatsoever. The book is also, in some sense, an exercise in meta-literature. Fernando Pessoa had created the character of Ricardo Reis fifty years or so prior to its release, giving him a biography and writing many poems under that name. That Saramago would place the two characters side by side underscores a deliberate blurring of the boundaries between fantasy and reality, a common theme in Saramago's work, and a rejection of traditional limitations on narrative practices. Reis spends much of his time reading a novel called ''The God of the Labyrinth'', a fictional novel mentioned by the writer

Jorge Luis Borges Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo (; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, as well as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known bo ...

and attributed to the title character of his short story "A Survey of the Works of Herbert Quain".

Style

''The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis'' is written in Saramago's distinctive style, in which he disregards the traditional use of punctuation, except for commas and periods, which denote dialogue and changes in the speaker using only capital letters. Saramago uses long, flowing sentences and paragraphs often several pages in length. Saramago also digresses from the story frequently, occasionally even in the first person, remarking philosophically on the significance of images, objects, or situations encountered in the story. Saramago’s writing technique often has strong magical-realist elements.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Year Of The Death Of Ricardo Reis 20th-century Portuguese novels 1984 novels Fernando Pessoa Houghton Mifflin books Novels by José Saramago Novels set in Lisbon Portuguese magic realism novels