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  SARAMAGO
  José Saramago was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1998

  José Saramago was born in 1922, although he only began to publish much later in the form of poetry, chronicles and short stories. Indeed, it   was only with the novels Levantado do Chão, 1980, and Memorial do Convento, 1982, that he was to achieve a popularity that has continued   to grow both nationally and internationally. He fictionalises about particular moments in Portuguese history and culture (O Ano da Morte de   Ricardo Reis, 1944, História do Cerco de Lisboa, 1989) or provides a glimpse of periods of dystopia occurring at the wrong time (Jangada de   Pedra, 1986) and in the wrong place (Ensaio sobre a Cegueira, 1995, Todos os Nomes, 1997). All these different fictions show man being   forced to revert to a necessary, and not always fortunate, confrontation with his community. His writing has a very particular style that gives   special emphasis to long and progressively more elaborate sentences developing through the author's sense of urgency, not shying away   from the role of selecting and judging and thus justifying the idea of literary creation.

  José Saramago, 1922
  Memorial do Convento | Lisbon, Caminho, 1982

  Set against the background of the reign of Dom João V at the time of the construction of Mafra Convent, Memorial do Convento ( Memorial for   the Convent ) decisively launched José Saramago's work in the eyes of both the critics and the general reader alike. Following its publication   he became the best-known Portuguese novelist outside the country and in 1998 won the Nobel Prize for Literature. 

  Cultivating a style in which colloquial fluency combines with the almost Baroque lace trimmings of the language he employs, Saramago uses   historical data as the starting point from which to create situations in which the real, the fantastic and the wonderful seem to merge until the   limits of realist verisimilitude fade away. 

  In this particular case, which is set against the backcloth of a historical chronicle of the 18 th century in Portugal, in which the person of Father   Bartolomeu de Gusmão - one of the pioneers of aeronautical studies - is especially prominent, the leading characters are Baltasar Mateus   and Blimunda de Jesus. The latter is a strange woman with visionary powers that help thicken a supernatural atmosphere which, to a greater   or lesser extent, was also to appear in later works by Saramago and to establish common points between them and the literature of fantasy.

  Baltasar & Blimunda , trad. Giovanni Pontiero. Londres, The Harvill Press, 1998, 345 p. - Tít. orig. Memorial do Convento

  Baltasar and Blimunda, trad. Giovanni Pontiero. Nova Iorque/San Diego, Harcourt Brace & Company, 1987 - Tít. orig. Memorial do Convento

  Baltasar and Blimunda , trad. Giovanni Pontiero. EUA, Harvest Books, 1998 - Tít. orig. Memorial do Convento

  Baltasar and Blimunda . Londres, Jonathan Cape, 1988 - Tít. orig. Memorial do Convento

  In: http://www.instituto-camoes.pt/cvc/literatura/eng