A poet, novelist, playwright and essayist from Lisbon who now lives in the Spanish Canary Islands, Nobel Laureate Jose Saramago made his international breakthrough in 1982 with the publication of Baltasar and Blimunda, a novel set in 18th-century Portugal. His novels have been translated into many languages and published throughout the world. He is the author of some 30 volumes of prose, poetry, drama and essays, and has won several major literary awards, in addition to the Nobel Prize. He spoke at UCLA in Portugese with English translation. (#6598)