The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reiss

The year is 1936 . . . Europe dances while Spain edges towards civil war and a home-grown dictator establishes himself in Portugal. In the middle of this surreal setting is Ricardo Reis, a middle-aged doctor and poet who has returned to his native land after 16 years in Brazil. But instead of seeing patients, he spends hours walking the rain-filled streets, has a love affair with a hotel chambermaid, is haunted by a young woman with a mysterious paralysis, and is visited by the ghost of a dead Portuguese poet. Can he live in a world bend on destroying itself? SC, 358 pages.