Given that José Saramago became an author of note only in the 1980s, one might expect Skylight – completed in 1953 but forgotten in a publisher's drawer for 36 years – to be of interest only as a glimpse into the Nobel laureate's development. But it is an excellent novel, depicting the diversity and drama of the quotidian with skill and honesty. Set in a Lisbon apartment block in 1952, the narrative explores the tenants: the cobbler and his wife who take in a lodger; the kept woman whose mother feigns concern and looks for money; the Spanish woman given to fighting with her husband and regretting she didn't marry her cousin. The fluid sentences that became the author's trademark are absent, but the observation, characterisation and compassion are in evidence. Many chapters could stand alone as short stories.
