Saramago's Jesus is the son not of God but of Joseph. Mary Magdalene is his lover not his convert. In the wilderness he tussles not with the Devil ??? a kindly and necessary evil ??? but with God, a fallible, power-hungry autocrat. And he must die not for the sins of the fathers but for the sins of the Father.

By investigating these simple inversions Saramago has woven a dark parable; a secular gospel of astonishing richness and depth.