The son of rural laborers, Saramago was born on Nov. 16, 1922, in Azinhaga, Portugal, and grew up in great poverty in Lisbon. After holding a series of jobs as mechanic and metalworker, Saramago began working in a Lisbon publishing firm and eventually became a journalist and translator. He joined the Portuguese Communist party in 1969, published several volumes of poems, and served as editor of a Lisbon newspaper in 1974–75 during the period that followed the overthrow of the dictatorship of António Salazar. An anti-Communist backlash followed in which Saramago lost his position, and in his 50s he began writing the novels that would eventually establish his international reputation.

One of Saramago's most important novels is Memorial do convento (1982; Baltasar and Blimunda). With 18th-century Portugal (during the Inquisition) as a backdrop, it chronicles the efforts of a handicapped war veteran and his lover to flee their situation using a flying machine powered by human will. Other ambitious novels include O ano da morte de Ricardo Reis (1984; The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis), A jangada de pedra (1986; The Stone Raft), and O evangelho segundo Jesus Cristo (1991; The Gospel According to Jesus Christ).

Among Saramago's other novels are his first, Manual de pintura e caligrafia (1976; Manual of Painting and Calligraphy), and such later works as Historia do cerco de Lisboa (1989; The History of the Siege of Lisbon), Ensaio sobre a cegueira (1995; Blindness), and Todos os nomes (1997; All the Names). When he received the Nobel prize in 1998, his novels were widely read in Europe but less well known in the United States. He was the first Portuguese-language writer to win the Noble prize. Saramago also wrote poetry, plays, and several volumes of essays and short stories, as well as autobiographical works.