In José Saramago's brilliant sequel to 'Blindness,' the residents of the unnamed capital city face a new crisis. On election day, an overwhelming majority of the populace casts blank ballots. The government, baffled and terrified by this silent, unified act of civil disobedience, interprets it as an anarchistic conspiracy. This provocative novel explores the nature of democracy, the paranoia of power, and what happens when the will of the people manifests not as a choice, but as a profound and resounding refusal.