On the first day of the new year, no one dies.
Death sits in her chilly apartment, where she lives alone with scythe and filing cabinets, and contemplates her experiment: What if no one ever died again? What if she, Death with a small d, became human and were to fall in love?.
Then reality hits home--families are left to care for the permanently dying, life-insurance policies become meaningless, and funeral parlors are reduced to arranging burials for pet dogs, cats, hamsters, and parrots.
They have achieved the great goal of humanity: eternal life.
Among the general public, on the other hand, there is initially celebration--flags are hung out on balconies, people dance in the streets.
This of course causes consternation among politicians, religious leaders, morticians, and doctors.
Nobel Prize-winner Jose Saramago\'s brilliant novel poses the question--what happens when the grim reaper decides there will be no more death? On the first day of the new year, no one dies.
Then reality hits home, in this novel from a Nobel Prize-winning author.
Among the general public, on the other hand, there is initially celebration: they have achieved eternal life.
This causes consternation among politicians, religious leaders, and doctors.
On the first day of the new year, no one dies
