Book discussion: Blindness by Jose Saramago

Published in 1995, Blindness is José Saramago’s unsettling allegory of social collapse. When a sudden epidemic of blindness spreads through an unnamed city, institutions fail, moral codes erode, and the fragile fabric of civilisation begins to unravel.

The novel follows a small group of characters struggling to survive as fear, cruelty, and indifference emerge alongside moments of compassion and solidarity. As order breaks down, the story exposes how quickly power shifts and how thin the line is between civility and barbarism.

Disturbing yet profoundly humane, Blindness asks what remains of ethics, responsibility, and dignity when social order disappears, and whether seeing has ever truly been about the eyes alone.