Nobel-winning novelist Saramago dead at 87

MADRID – Nobel literature prize winner Jose Saramago, who left his native Portugal after arguing with his country’s government, has died on the Canary island Lanzarote aged 87, his Spanish publisher said Friday.

The author suffered multiple organ failure after a long illness, and was "surrounded by his family" when he died in a "serene and peaceful way," the Jose Saramago Foundation said in a statement.

Saramago, whose novels include "Blindness" and "The Cave", had spent several periods in hospital recently due to respiratory problems, and was suffering from leukemia, the daily El Mundo said.

Saramago left Portugal in the early 1990s after the conservative government in power refused to allow his controversial novel "The Gospel According to Jesus Christ" to compete for a European literary prize.

He lived on Lanzarote with his wife Pilar del Rio, a Spanish journalist.

Born to a peasant family in the central village of Azinhaga, he left school at the age of 12 and trained as a locksmith.

Saramago published his first novel in 1947, but his next work, a collection of poems, did not appear until 19 years later.

A member of the Communist Party, which was banned at the time, he took part in the revolution that ousted the Portuguese dictatorship in 1974 and published a second novel in 1977.

His literary career only took off with the publication in 1982, when he was 60, of "Baltasar and Blimunda", a historical love story set in 17th-century Portugal.

A self-described pessimist and non-believer, Saramago’s novels, which have sold millions of copies in more than 30 languages, often deal with fantastic scenarios.

"The Gospel According to Jesus Christ" depicted Jesus losing his virginity to Mary Magdalen and being used by God for world domination.

His 1995 novel "Blindness" depicts the breakdown of society after nearly everyone in another unnamed country goes blind. It was made into a movie in 2008 starring Julianne Moore.

"Essay on Lucidity", released in 2004, explored a right-wing government’s violent reaction to an election in which more than 80 per cent of votes cast are blank.

"The Intermittency of Death", published in 2005, explores the chaos generated in an unnamed country where people suddenly stop dying.

In "Cain", published last year, the author absolves the Biblical figure for the murder of his younger brother Abel and puts the blame instead on God.

Saramago set off a storm of protests in Israel in 2002 after he compared a Palestinian city blockaded by the Israeli army which he visited to the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz.

"What is happening in Palestine is a crime which we can put on the same plane as what happened at Auschwitz," the author told reporters at the time following a meeting with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

In late 2009, a row broke out in Portugal after Saramago denounced the Bible as a "handbook of bad morals".

Speaking at the launch of "Cain" Saramago said society would probably be better off without the Bible. Roman Catholic Church leaders accused him of a publicity stunt.

As well as novels he wrote poetry, essays and plays.