Saramago Won Nobel prize for Literature in 1998. He bacame a famous writer only after the Revolution of the 25^th of april !974 and after several other jobs, he was a literary critic during the 60's, a communist activist, and his works was important especially for politic and historical themes.

He often modifies history because he was influenced by Nietzche, nihilist philosopher, in opinion of whichthere aren't real fact but only interpretatinos. For this thought, Saramago considered the official historical version only one of the possible interpretations. The novel Jesus' Gospel, that creates a big scandal in catholic Portugal in 1991, was an example of this belief. He was forced to move toCanary Islands to publish this book. It is a revision of the Gospel, written following apocriphal gospels, and the catholic world judged it blasphemous. In another novel, Picture ad Calligraphy Manual, written in 1937, there was an anticipation of this destiny. In fact, its main character, a painter, is alienated by his publis because he tries a new way of drawing portraits.

Also Sarmago's style is very innovative becayse he breaks formal rules: he create complex sentences, often whitout punctution marks, with an over-refined lexicon. This style forced the reader to a particular attention because of its complexity. Doing so, th ewriter can guide the reader into his complicated thoughts, rarely showing his belief in explicite way.

Picture and Calligraphy Manual advances also the theme of the journey, on which is based Journey accross Portugal. In the first, he describes a travel accross italian most important cities as an autobigraphical exercise of the main character that wants to discover himself; in the secind he describes from north to south the most famous artistic places of Portugal, with a particular attention for people costoms. It isn't only a simple touristic guide, because Saramago expresse his tastes, describing what he prefers at lenght.