was born 1922 in Azinhaga, in the province of Ribatejo, Portugal. The author lives on the Canary Islands. After trying different jobs in the civil service, Saramago worked for a publishing company for twelve years and then for newspapers, at one time as assistant editor of Diário de Notícias, a position he was forced to leave after the political events in November 1975. In 1969 he joined the then illegal Communist Party, in which however he has always adopted a critical standpoint. Between 1975 and 1980 Saramago supported himself as a translator but since his literary successes in the 1980s he has devoted himself to his own writing. He has published plays, short stories, novels, poems, libretti, diaries, and travelogues. His first novel, Manual de Pintura e Caligrafia: romance, appeared in 1977. Among his other works are O evangelho segundo Jesus Cristo: romance, 1991 and Todos os nomes: romance, 1997. Saramago was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1998.