José Saramago

José de Sousa Saramago, (pronounced|ʒuˈzɛ sɐɾɐˈmagu; born November 16, 1922; died June 18, 2010) was a Portuguese writer, playwright and journalist.

José de Sousa Saramago
Born	(1922-11-16)November 16, 1922 Azinhaga, Ribatejo, Portugal
Died	June 18, 2010(2010-06-18) (aged 87) Lanzrote, Spain
Occupation	Playwright, Novelist
Nationality	Portugal
Period	1947-present
Notable works	Baltasar and Blimunda, The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis

Saramago was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1998. He lived on Lanzarote in the Canary Islands, Spain.

Biography

Saramago was born into a family of landless peasants in Azinhaga, Portugal, a small village in the province of Ribatejo some hundred kilometers north-east of Lisbon.

Saramago married Ilda Reis in 1944. Their only child, Violante, was born in 1947. Since 1988, Saramago has been married to the Spanish journalist Pilar del Río, who is the official translator of his books into Spanish.

José Saramago was in his mid-fifties before he had international success; his novel Baltasar and Blimunda brought him an international readership. This novel won the Portuguese PEN Club Award.

Saramago was a member of the Portuguese Communist Party from 1969, until his death ^[1] as well as an atheist^[2] and self-described pessimist.^[3] His views have aroused considerable controversy in Portugal, especially after the publication of The Gospel According to Jesus Christ.^[4]

Themes

Saramago uses for his works fantastic scenarios. In his 1986 novel, The Stone Raft, the Iberian Peninsula breaks off from the rest of Europe and sails about the Atlantic Ocean. In his 1995 novel, Blindness, an entire country is stricken with a mysterious plague called “white blindness”.

Bibliography

Title	Year	English title	Year	ISBN
Terra do Pecado	1947
Os Poemas Possíveis	1966
Provavelmente Alegria	1970
Deste Mundo e do Outro	1971
A Bagagem do Viajante	1973
As Opiniões que o DL teve	1974
O Ano de 1993	1975
Os Apontamentos	1976
Manual de Pintura e Caligrafia	1977	Manual of Painting and Calligraphy	1993	ISBN 1-85754-043-3
Objecto Quase	1978
Levantado do Chão	1980
Viagem a Portugal	1981	Journey to Portugal	2000	ISBN 0-15-100587-7
Memorial do Convento	1982	Baltasar and Blimunda	1987	ISBN 0-15-110555-3
O Ano da Morte de Ricardo Reis	1986	The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis	1991	ISBN 0-15-199735-7
A Jangada de Pedra	1986	The Stone Raft	1994	ISBN 0-15-185198-0
História do Cerco de Lisboa	1989	The History of the Siege of Lisbon	1996	ISBN 0-15-100238-X
O Evangelho Segundo Jesus Cristo	1991	The Gospel According to Jesus Christ	1993	ISBN 0-15-136700-0
Ensaio sobre a Cegueira	1995	Blindness	1997	ISBN 0-15-100251-7
Todos os Nomes	1997	All the Names	1999	ISBN 0-15-100421-8
O Conto da Ilha Desconhecida	1997	The Tale of the Unknown Island	1999	ISBN 0-15-100595-8
A Caverna	2001	The Cave	2002	ISBN 0-15-100414-5
O Homem Duplicado	2003	The Double	2004	ISBN 0-15-101040-4
Ensaio sobre a Lucidez	2004	Seeing	2006	ISBN 0-15-101238-5
Don Giovanni ou o Dissoluto Absolvido	2005
As Intermitências da Morte	2005	Death at Intervals	2008	ISBN 1-84655-020-3
As Pequenas Memórias	2006