The Lives of Things is a short story collection by Portuguese novelist and Nobel-prize winner Jose Saramago.

As a consequence of this rot, the chair collapses underneath an unnamed dictator who is identified as former Portuguese Prime Minister António de Oliveira Salazar by the book's translator.

[1] In "Reflux," an unnamed king has such a fear of death that he cannot bear the sight of a funeral procession, grave stones, or black mourning clothes.

[2] Saramago lost his job as deputy director of the newspaper Diário de Nóticias in 1975, for what he believes were political reasons.

[3] The Lives of Things was written early in this period of renewed commitment to literature and published in 1978, one year after the publication of Saramago's first novel, Manual of Painting and Calligraphy.

Reviewer Andrew Fleming indicates that Saramago's work has some things in common with magical realist Gabriel García Márquez.

Reviewers agree that the stories are seminal: their allegorical devices foreshadow Saramago's later, greater works, especially Blindness and The Gospel According to Jesus Christ.

The Wall Street Journal's mostly negative review finds the collection marred by heavy-handed political messages while allowing that the stories are inventive.

The collection's didactic rejection of capitalism, Ahmari believes, is inevitable because Saramago's life was "so deeply compromised by toxic politics.

"[8] By contrast, a University of Rochester review praises the stories' inventiveness and Saramago's ability to splice realistic and supernatural elements into political allegory.

Reviewer Aleksandra Fazlipour writes that "with or without the political context, the book is the kind of read that ensnares you, drawing you into its world and forcing you to see things a particular way—Saramago’s way--while you compulsively turn the pages.

[11] Booklist Reviewer Brendan Driscoll, on the other hand, writes that "The Chair," with its "gripping detail," is the strongest of the stories.

[12] Though the stories did not garner any new awards for Saramago, The Lives of Things was cited as one of the books to read in 2012 by a 2011 Irish Times article.