One of my country’s most amazing stories is the story of a writer who was hated by our people but his books ended up being so famous here that we ended up “apologizing” after the death of the writer.
The writer’s name was José de Sousa Saramago and he was a left-wing supporter, which made him lose his job at a newspaper during the 70’s (Portugal’s most problematic era)
Things went worse when he published a book named *O Evangelho segundo Jesus Cristo* in 1991 that caused him to be the number 1 enemy of Portugal’s clergy (the book is a parody of the bible)
And the hate reached its peak when Aníbal Cavaco Silva, Portugal’s prime minister, censored his works because they were considered offensive.
This made José exile himself to the island of Lanzarote where he married a spanish woman.
However there was one book who saved his life named *Ensaio sobre a cegueira* published in 1995 that made him so popular that Portugal awarded him a literature prize as a way to forgive him for all the hate.
He never returned to Portugal, but when he died his body returned to Portugal and a state funeral was organized with national mourning (despite Portugal forgiving him, Aníbal Cavaco Silva didnt attend his funeral demonstrating that Portugal is still divided because of him)
Nowadays he is a national icon in Portugal and his books are studied by Portuguese students, and its almost imposible to not see *Memorial do Convento* or *O Ano da Morte de Ricardo Reis* in our bookshelves.
I think his books should be known worldwide and also his history, because he is the example of how a divided nation can be united.
As a portuguese person raised in a catholic family I agree that some people are offended by José’s works but I think that he became too iconic in our country and that he deserved to return.
>Dentro de nós há uma coisa que não tem nome, essa coisa é o que somos
Inside us there is something that has no name, that something is who we are
José de Sousa Saramago
by CRNXD38