José de Sousa Saramago was a Portuguese writer, born on 16 November 1922, and passed away on 18 June 2010. He was awarded the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature for his "parables sustained by imagination, compassion and irony [with which he] continually enables us once again to apprehend an elusory reality."

Saramago's works, many of which are allegorical, often present subversive perspectives on historical events, emphasizing the theopoetic human factor. Notably, in 2003, Harold Bloom described him as "the most gifted novelist alive in the world today" and later as "a permanent part of the Western canon." James Wood also praised him for the "distinctive tone to his fiction," narrating as if "both wise and ignorant."

More than two million copies of Saramago's books have been sold in Portugal alone, with translations in 25 languages. A proponent of libertarian communism, he criticized institutions such as the Catholic Church, the European Union, and the International Monetary Fund. Despite being an atheist, he advocated for love as an instrument to improve the human condition.

In 1992, the Portuguese Government, under Prime Minister Aníbal Cavaco Silva, ordered the removal of his work, The Gospel According to Jesus Christ, from the Aristeion Prize's shortlist, claiming it was religiously offensive. Feeling politically censored, Saramago went into exile on the Spanish island of Lanzarote, where he lived with his Spanish wife, Pilar del Río, until his death.

He was a founding member of the National Front for the Defense of Culture in Lisbon in 1992.