Poetic Obituaries: [Jose] Saramago published poetry but was best known

for his novels. These tend to start from an unlikely premise--Portugal breaks away from Europe and floats across the ocean, the pseudonymous personality of Portugal's best-known poet wanders around Lisbon, almost all a country's people go blind--to follow their own logic, often with satirical implications.

"From these impossible premises, more or less logical consequences follow, more or less fabulously narrated; with light digressions, tense asides and much moody self-reflexiveness," comments Daniel Soar in the London Review of Books.

from Radio France Internationale: Nobel prize-winning novelist Jose Saramago dies at 87
also The Daily Telegraph: José Saramago

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