When a Portuguese proofreader rewrites history by changing a word in a text, he unexpectedly wins the heart of his supervisor, Maria Sara, who encourages him to fabricate more in the grand style of a historical romance. Around this seemingly minor episode, Jose Saramago, "Portugal's great fabulist" ("Los Angeles Times") constructs one of his most ambitious, sweeping novels to date, a magical tale of love, memory, and the revision of things past.