Portuguese · 1922–2010
José Saramago won the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature for work "that with parables sustained by imagination, compassion and irony continually enables us once again to apprehend an elusory reality." The Portuguese author wrote novels without conventional punctuation, letting dialogue flow into description in long, meditative sentences. "Blindness" depicted a city struck by epidemic blindness; "The Gospel According to Jesus Christ" reimagined Christ's story. Saramago remained politically engaged as a Communist until his death.