José de Sousa Saramago was a Portuguese writer acclaimed for his richly imaginative and insightful works. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1998 for his ability to make elusive reality comprehensible through parables characterized by imagination, compassion, and irony. Saramago's writings, often seen as allegorical, offer subversive views on historical events, highlighting the human factor in what he terms 'theopoetic' expressions.

In 2003, literary critic Harold Bloom described Saramago as "the most gifted novelist alive in the world today" and later included him as "a permanent part of the Western canon." Critic James Wood commended the distinctive tone of Saramago's fiction, which narrates his novels with a voice that combines wisdom and ignorance.

Saramago's works have resonated globally, with over two million copies sold in Portugal alone and translations in 25 languages. A staunch proponent of libertarian communism, he was known to critique institutions such as the Catholic Church, the European Union, and the International Monetary Fund. As an atheist, Saramago championed love as a means to improve the human condition.

His commitment to his ideals was so strong that he chose to live in exile on the Spanish island of Lanzarote with his wife Pilar del Río after facing political censorship in Portugal. This event unfolded when his book The Gospel According to Jesus Christ was removed from a prize shortlist due to claims of religious offense.

Among his notable works are Country of Sin (1947), The Stone Raft (1986), and Baltasar and Blimunda. Saramago's literary presence has been profound, influencing readers and writers around the world, and his legacy endures through his extensive body of work, which has been translated into more than forty languages.