WRITER

José Saramago

1922 - 2010

Photo of José Saramago

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José de Sousa Saramago (European Portuguese: [ʒuˈzɛ ðɨ ˈsozɐ sɐɾɐˈmaɣu]; 16 November 1922 – 18 June 2010) was a Portuguese writer. He was the recipient of 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." His works, some of which can be seen as allegories, commonly present subversive perspectives on historic events, emphasizing the theopoetic human factor. In 2003 Harold Bloom described Saramago as "the most gifted novelist alive in the world today" and in 2010 said he considers Saramago to be "a permanent part of the Western canon", while James Wood praises "the distinctive tone to his fiction because he narrates his novels as if he were someone both wise and ignorant." More than two million copies of Saramago's books have been sold in Portugal alone and his work has been translated into 25 languages. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of José Saramago has received more than 1,556,772 page views. His biography is available in 108 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 103 in 2019). José Saramago is the 89th most popular writer (up from 98th in 2019), the 5th most popular biography from Portugal (up from 7th in 2019) and the most popular Portuguese Writer.

José Saramago is a Portuguese novelist, playwright, and poet. He is most famous for his novels The Stone Raft, Blindness, and The Double.

Memorability Metrics

  • 1.6M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 77.80

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 108

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 12.90

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 3.71

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Notable Works

Ensayo Sobre La Ceguera
Blindness, Fiction, Ficción
A guy going back to he's house after work, suddenly goes blind while on a red light on his car. He cannot understand what is happening, he just can't see anything. Unlike any blindness his, is white. All he can see is just white. No body is worried, he must just have any kind of temporal blidness or maybe he need some rest. The next day he goes to the eye doctor to see if he can tell him what is it he's suffering from, but the doctor sees what he descibes as some healthy eyes. Soon after that a couple more cases are reported of people whi have just all of the sudden become blind. But not jus any kind of blindness, the all are infected by the white blindness. One of those trhiling book you just don't want to put down. Saramago's ability to take through the hole history without telling the actual name of any of the characters is just amazing. And the way he explores the interactions and caos in the society is just brilliant. Higly recomended.
1998
Ensaio sobre a cegueira
Blind, Blindness, Fiction
1995
El Hombre Duplicado
1998
Historia del Cerco de Lisboa
Proofreading, Fiction, History
1990
Memorial del Convento
1995
A jangada de pedra
1980

Among WRITERS

Among writers, José Saramago ranks 89 out of 7,302. Before him are Miyamoto Musashi, Isaac Asimov, Daniel Defoe, Knut Hamsun, Pablo Neruda, and Giorgio Vasari. After him are Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Henry David Thoreau, Jack London, Toni Morrison, Erich Maria Remarque, and Emily Brontë.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1922, José Saramago ranks 2. Before him is Yitzhak Rabin. After him are Pier Paolo Pasolini, Joan Fuster, Christopher Lee, Stan Lee, Norodom Sihanouk, Judy Garland, Franjo Tuđman, Pierre Cardin, Thomas Kuhn, and Boutros Boutros-Ghali. Among people deceased in 2010, José Saramago ranks 1. After him are J. D. Salinger, Lech Kaczyński, Leslie Nielsen, Gloria Stuart, Tony Curtis, Ronnie James Dio, Benoit Mandelbrot, Bobby Farrell, Dennis Hopper, Claude Chabrol, and Éric Rohmer.

Others Born in 1922

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Others Deceased in 2010

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In Portugal

Among people born in Portugal, José Saramago ranks 5 out of 633. Before him are Ferdinand Magellan (1480), Vasco da Gama (1460), Bartolomeu Dias (1450), and Anthony of Padua (1195). After him are Cristiano Ronaldo (1985), António de Oliveira Salazar (1889), António Guterres (1949), Prince Henry the Navigator (1394), Pedro Álvares Cabral (1467), Fernando Pessoa (1888), and Luís de Camões (1524).

Others born in Portugal

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Among WRITERS In Portugal

Among writers born in Portugal, José Saramago ranks 1. After him are Fernando Pessoa (1888), Luís de Camões (1524), Denis of Portugal (1261), José Maria de Eça de Queirós (1845), Judah Leon Abravanel (1460), Gil Vicente (1465), João de Barros (1496), Camilo Castelo Branco (1825), Luís Fróis (1532), Almeida Garrett (1799), and Tomé Pires (1468).

Portuguese born Writers

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