abstract
Based on José Saramago’s History of the siege of Lisbon (1989), I discuss here how the author expresses compassion for the suffering of a stray dog in Alfama, a Lisbon neighborhood, through the narrator’s voice, the attitudes and thoughts of the novel’s main character, and how Moors and Christians viewed dogs and each other in the Middle Ages..
keywords: Contemporary Portuguese novel; José Saramago; Dogs; Compassion