Taken from Chapters.Indigo website:

From the Publisher
On the first day of the new year, no one dies. This of course causes consternation among politicians, religious leaders, morticians, and doctors. Among the general public, on the other hand, there is initially celebration flags are hung out on balconies, people dance in the streets. They have achieved the great goal of humanity: eternal life. 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. 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?

About the Author
José de Sousa Saramago, is a Nobel-laureate Portuguese novelist, playwright and journalist. He is the author of numerous novels, including All the Names, Blindness, and The Cave. His works, some of which can be seen as allegories, commonly present subversive perspectives on historic events, emphasizing the human factor rather than the officially sanctioned story. Saramago was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1998. He founded the National Front for the Defense of Culture (Lisbon, 1992) with among others Freitas-Magalhaes. He currently lives on Lanzarote in the Canary Islands, Spain.

MARGARET JULL COSTA is the foremost translator of Portuguese literature into English.

A great read!! I read the blurb about the book in a flyer and ordered it to read. Quite humorous in spots - I actually shared some of the story with my husband which I don't normally do. I love the way this book has deep meaning without being a heavy read. I finished it in a couple of days.

I am going to offer this up as a bookring and see if there is any interest.

Participants: In Shipping Order

Laui - The Netherlands (prefers EU)
kiyoitsukikage - Poland (prefers EU)
karen07814 - UK
mrbaggins1 - South Africa (anywhere)
jneni - Singapore (anywhere)
allthesepieces - US
easterngirl71 - US (back to me)

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Started on its voyage!! Enjoy!!

It's arrived! It looks so brand new, wow. I'm currently being visited by a herd of books (1-2 tbr before this one). My holiday is in three weeks. I'll keep you posted on the progress.

I'm not sure what to do with the rhododendron stamps. They're absolutely lovely, but I'd like to be sure if they're not meant for anyone else or left in by accident, before I consider them mine ;-) Mystery solved: thanks very much for the nice surprise!

August 14: I'm very sorry to inform you that I haven't started yet. I have 1/2 book before it, and I'm hoping to start on this one in a few days. I'm sorry for the delay, but I've been looking forward to reading it so I'm quite determined to do so. I'll keep you posted, promise!
August 16: started yesterday and I'm actually getting along nicely. No worries, I'll finish it this week!

Wow, what an exceptional read. I really enjoyed it and loved many parts. Two stand out: the entire part in which the narrator addresses death directly, that bit makes death so incredibly human. It really is my favorite part of the entire book. The second is the very last bit, the last sentence even. All in all it's a lovely read, imaginative and everything.
The reason why this is not a 10 is because it is not Saramago's best. To make it perfect there simply are too many unfinished bits, too many impossibilities left unexplained. However, it doesn't take the rest of the book down, in my opinion.

I've got kiyoitsukikage's address already, so I'll mail it out asap. Sorry to take a little longer than a month and many, many thanks for including me and the lovely stamps!

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Dropped off at the post office today, so it's on its way to Poland. Safe travels!

Thanks again for this ring, it was a great read!

I can't believe I forgot to journal this book. I am so sorry! It arrived quite a while ago and I've been an extremely slow reader, what with moving to another country etc. I will be finishing the book soon.

I'd say it's a tough read too - found it difficult to follow the looong sentences and esp. dialogues with no punctuation (dashes etc.). No capital letters (e.g. in names) is an interesting device.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Finally sent out to the next person. Sorry again for the delay. Thank you for sharing.

it's here!
uh oh it's got prize winner written on it. This sually means it's one I won't like.
This time is one of the rare exceptions. This was great.
Once I got used to the style of writing it flowed very well. I enjoyed the imagination of what would happen if death just stopped and thought it was clever to set boundaries and allow other possibilties.
Thanks for sharing, now going to SA 1/12/09

Arrived in South Africa from karen07814 (UK) today - will get around to it soon. Thanks for sharing.

This book is still with me and I have put it aside for a while - I seem to be struggling to get into it a bit but will give it another go in a day or so. LOL

I'm giving up on this - my working life is catching up with my reading life and I need to send this on, sorry. Thanks for sharing, I'm contacting the next in line.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Posted by surface mail to allthesepieces in the US today. Sorry for the delay. Life caught u with me a little bit the last while.

This one arrived with this morning's mail. I've got a few rings ahead of this one, but I should be able to get started soon. Thank you for sharing this book, and thank you, mrbaggins, for the lovely postcard. I love this print!

EDIT (five minutes later): I just found the note tucked into the pages of the book. Imagine my surprise...I'd wondered what was meant by "spend the money wisely!" Thank you, again. I'll be sure to share this fortune with my fellow Bookcrossers. ;)

Got this book in the mail today! Pmed deereads. And am waiting to hear from her:) Thanks so much for sharing this book with me:)