The Double (novel)

"The Double" ( _pt. O Homem Duplicado) is a 2001 novel by Portuguese author José Saramago.

Plot summary

" "The Double," translated by Margaret Jull Costa, begins with Tertuliano, a history teacher whose job no longer interests him. Neither does his girlfriend, Maria da Paz, despite her loyal devotion and - as he and we discover - her formidably grounded and alluring intelligence. For Mr. Saramago intelligence belongs to the women and is erotic; the men are scattery.

Tertuliano is an anomic vacuum. Nature abhors such a thing; the author does too, and rushes in to fill it with one of his characteristic magic-box potions: a lightly weird, even comic oddity that swells into a terrifying philosophical dimension.

A friend recommends a trashy video to cheer him up; watching, he sees a minor actor who looks exactly like him, except that the actor wears a mustache and Tertuliano shaved his off five years earlier. Then he notices that the video was made five years ago. Creepiness enters.

So does obsession and Tertuliano pursues it. The name isn't in the phone book since it's a movie pseudonym. Through a series of absurdly devious maneuvers he finds the real name: Antonio. He telephones. Helena, Antonio's wife, answers. Creepiness mounts. She thinks the voice is her husband's.

Before long he is talking on the phone to Antonio, providing details of moles and scars in exactly the same place. More than curiosity and coincidence are at work; there is the darkening shadow of something fearful. Tertuliano presses for a meeting, Antonio feigns indifference but soon grows equally obsessed.

They meet in a country retreat; stripping, they find they are identical. Even their birth date is the same, though Antonio arrived first by 31 minutes. He is the original, he boasts; and Tertuliano the copy. Tertuliano bitterly retorts that perhaps Antonio will die that much sooner. Antonio: "Well I hope you enjoy those 31 minutes of personal, absolute and exclusive identity, because that is all you will enjoy from now on." " (From http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/27/books/27eder.html?_r=1&oref=slogin)