José Saramago was born into a family that lived in Azinhaga, a small village in the province of Ribatejo; located one hundred kilometers north of Lisbon, Portugal. Saramago was born on November 16, 1922, but all his papers show that the birth took place two days later, on November 18, 1922. Born to landless peasants, Saramago was forced to move several times during his life. At the age of two, Saramago and his family moved to Lisbon, where his father was able to find work as a police officer. Shortly after moving to Lisbon, Saramago's older brother, Francisco, died. Saramago was considered an excellent student by his peers and his teachers. “In the second course, I wrote without spelling mistakes and the third and fourth courses were done in a single year. » Saramago remembers. He was considered competent enough to be placed in a high school, where he excelled for two years. Due to financial problems with his parents, Saramago was no longer able to attend high school. After being unable to attend high school where he excelled, Saramago was forced to attend a technical school. No program at the technical school matched Saramago's interests, except for literature classes. Having no money to buy books and other materials needed to successfully complete the course, Saramago turned to his friend for help. To this day, Saramago says he can still recite poems from those textbooks. After completing his literature studies, Saramago spent two years as a mechanic. During these years as a mechanic, Saramago began spending a lot of time in a library in Lisbon. This was the library where Saramago had become curious and eager to learn; “My taste for reading has developed and refined. » When Saramago and his wife, Ilda Reis...... middle of paper ......mago and del Río settled on the island of Lanzarote, in the Canary Islands. The move to the unknown island of Lanzaroyte would fit perfectly with the reason why José Saramago wrote the short story The Tale of the Unknown Island. The first copy of this short story was written the same year that José Saramago received the Nobel Prize for Literature, 1998. José Saramago, born to landless peasant parents north of Lisbon, became a Nobel laureate. Saramago faced many challenges on the path to success, but Saramago never gave in to letting those challenges define him as an individual. Works Cited “José Saramago”. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. March 11, 2010. “Nobelprize.org.” The Nobel Foundation. March 11, 2010 .