For Saramago, the life of Jesus and the story of His Passion are things of this Earth: a child crying, a gust of wind, the caress of a woman half asleep, the bleat of a goat or the bark of a dog, a prayer uttered in the gray morning light. This beautifully rendered work of prose by one of Europe's most respected writers is a defiance of the authority of God the Father, but not a denial.