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Saramago Route

 In 1998, he was awarded Nobel Prize in Literature.

Published in 1982, “Baltasar and Blimunda” is José Saramago’s most iconic novel. Translated into more than 20 languages, in over 50 editions, it examines a recurring theme in the writer’s work: the clash between rich and poor, the exploiter and the exploited.

The story takes place in the 18th century during the reign of João V, the king responsible for building the Monastery of Mafra, an enormous project paid for out of the gold imported from Brazil, which at the time was a Portuguese colony.

The contrast between the king’s megalomania and the misery of the common people who built the monastery runs through the whole novel and is scathingly evoked by the writer. And, inevitably, in the midst of all this, an enchanting love story unfolds.