"The most gifted novelist alive in the world today." Harold Bloom; "Saramago is a writer, like Faulkner, so confident of his resources and ultimate destination that he can bring any improbability to life." John Updike, New Yorker; "No one writes quite like Saramago, so solicitous and yet so magnificently free. He works as though cradling a thing of magic." Steven Poole, Guardian.

The Portuguese Nobel Laureate JOSE SARAMAGO (1922 - 2010) was a novelist, playwright and journalist. His numerous books, including the bestselling All the Names, Blindness, and The Cave, established him as one of the world's most influential writers. He died in June 2010. GIOVANNI PONTIERO (1932 - 1996) was the ablest translator of twentieth century literature in Portuguese and one of its most ardent advocates. He was the principal translator into English of the works of Jose Saramago and was awarded the Teixeira-Gomes Prize for his translation of The Gospel According to Jesus Christ.