The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis

The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis (in Portuguese: O Ano da Morte de Ricardo Reis) is a 1984 novel by the Portuguese novelist José Saramago, the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature awardee. The book chronicles the final year in the life of the title character, Ricardo Reis, one of the many heteronyms used by the Portuguese writer Fernando Pessoa. In the novel, Ricardo Reis returns to Lisbon from Brazil, upon catching wind of Pessoa's death. While there, he chooses not to resume practicing medicine, but rather takes up residence in a hotel, where he wastes his days reading newspapers and wandering the streets of Lisbon. The novel was translated into English by Giovanni Pontiero in 1991 and won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize.