Nationality 1: Portuguese

Birthdate: 1922

José Saramago was born on November 16, 1922, in Azinhaga, Ribatejo, Portugal. He is best known as a novelist, and in 1998 he became the first Portuguese writer to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature. Born into a family of rural workers, he grew up in the city of Lisbon, often visiting relatives in the countryside, and attended a technical school to learn a trade. Before becoming a full-time professional writer, Saramago worked as a mechanic, a civil servant, a translator, a literary critic, a political commentator, and a journalist. In 1944, he married Ilda Reis, and they had a child named Violante in 1947.

Saramago published his first novel Terra do pecado in 1947. Almost thirty years later in 1976, Saramago published his next novel entitled Manual de pintura e caligrafia (Manual of Painting and Calligraphy). His third novel Levantado do chao (Raised from the Ground) was published...