Blindness

Blindness is a novel that is a bit difficult to get into at first, but by the midpoint, one finds that it has gotten its fingers hooked so securely into ones belt loops and button holes, that it's almost impossible to put the thing down. What happens when everyone in the world goes blind? What happens to meaning, to relationship - or do these even exist any longer? How can the blind lead the blind? And, on the other hand, what is it that the blind can see that is obscured by sight itself?

Nobel recipient Jose Saramago's style is straightforward, understated, often ironic, and somewhat reminiscent of Camus and Golding, with an odd twist of Steinbeck. Well worth the read, as it turns out, and not too difficult in Indonesian translation.