"The Gospel According to Jesus Christ" is the funniest, most blasphemous, theological novel since Mikhail Bulgakov's "The Master and Margarita." It really deserves to be better known...

This is sad news. I have read many of his books and found them enjoyable, although he used the same formula many times: the world - something we take for granted = interesting story.

Here is an interview from 2006 with Saramago entitled "Still a street-fighting man": http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2006/apr/30/fiction.features...

Saramago was also an awesome blogger. Well, technically not a blogger per se -- His wife would post his writings for him. But his entries are fascinating and thought-provoking:

http://caderno.josesaramago.org/category/o-caderno-de-sarama...

The first book of his that I read was "The History of the Siege of Lisbon". I had to read the first pages a few times before I could understand it all, but I ended up hooked. I've read almost all his books and finally got interesed in literature written in my own language. I prefered English and Spanish before he finally made me see how wonderful Portuguese is.

I'm curious why the news of the death of a Portuguese Writer come to Hacker News feed? Was he a 'hacker'?

Sad day for me and for Portugal. We've lost one of our greatest ones. Remember the day I knew he won the Nobel Prize as if it was now. Not a consensual man, but a great man, and a great writer.

He actually had a blog:

http://caderno.josesaramago.org

or, in Spanish:

http://cuaderno.josesaramago.org

His books are enjoyable and thought provoking.

I just saw this in HN. I was reading the History of the Siege of Lisbon today at work. I think All the Names is his best book. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_the_Names What a great writer

I'm curious how the news of the death of a Nobel Portuguese writer came to hacker news? was he a 'hacker'?

Said day for all of us