Nobel literature laureate Jose Saramago dies at 87

MADRID - Portuguese Nobel literature laureate Jose Saramago died Friday at his home on the Spanish Canary Island of Lanzarote, his family said.

Saramago was 87 years old. He won the Nobel in 1998.

The novelist, poet and playwright suffered from leukemia. He had breakfast and chatted with his wife and translator Pilar del Rio Friday morning, after which he started feeling unwell and passed away, the family said.

Samarago had lived on the Canary Islands since 1993. His most recent work, Cain, was published in November.

Saramago was born in the village of Azinhaga into a peasant family. When he was two years old, the family moved to Lisbon, where Saramago’s father joined the police force.

Saramago initially worked as a mechanic, locksmith, journalist and translator. In 1947, he published his first novel, “Terra do Pecado (Land of Sin)” and later dedicated himself entirely to writing.

Saramago is known for his novels with fantastic plots revealing truths about the human condition. In “A Jangada de Pedra” (The Stone Raft, 1986) the Iberian Peninsula becomes detached from the rest of Europe and begins drifting in the Atlantic.

In “Ensaio sobre a Cegueira” (Blindness, 1995) a mysterious disease strikes the population of an unnamed country, making them go blind.

A communist militant since 1969, Saramago sometimes sparked controversy with his political views, such as accusing Israel of turning the Palestinian territories into a concentration camp, or

proposing that Portugal and Spain merge into a state called Iberia.

Saramago also upset some Portuguese with works such as “O Evangelho Segundo Jesus Cristo” (The Gospel According to Jesus Christ, 1991), in which he portrayed Jesus as a fallible human being.

Portuguese criticism of his views contributed to his decision to move to the Canary Islands with his second, Spanish wife.

“Millions of people are born to suffer, without anyone caring,” Saramago once said. He nevertheless described himself as a “well-informed optimist” rather than as a pessimist.

“Saramago lives as he writes, as lucid and with equal integrity in his books as … in his life,” Colombian novelist Laura Restrepo once said.

“I am only someone who, when he writes, lifts a stone and shows what is underneath. It is not my fault if monsters come out of there from time to time,” Saramago said with characteristic modesty.

During his travels on five continents, the writer encouraged people to think critically and to “get angry” instead of resigning themselves to the “inertia” characteristic of modern man.