“The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis” is a novel that, like Fowles’ “The Magus,” has become a cult favorite for European literature. This is a great game, because even in Portugal itself, not everyone knows that there really was no Ricardo Reis, that this is one of the heteronyms of the great Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa. Saramago arranges a “meeting” between the Creator and Creation, which takes place against the backdrop of the turbulent events of 1936...