He writes with wit, with heartbreaking dignity, and with the simplicity of a great artist in full control of his art. Let us listen to a true elder of our people, a man of tears, a man of wisdom
- Ursula Le Guin, Guardian
A brilliant, cruelly ironic, surreal exposé of what we think of as civil society
- John Burnside, Scotland on Sunday
Saramago portrays an instantly recognisable world in which our political masters bang on about democracy while pursuing policies without any regard to the normal standards of law and basic morality, but in this dense, dark and occasionally brutal book he never forgets the satirist's duty to be funny
- Peter Parker, Sunday Times
This is political satire delivered with rare intellectual gravitas
Mail on Sunday
A profound fable
New Statesman