In this pioneering study of Saramago's work, David Frier provides a comprehensive introduction for the English-speaking reader to the novels of Portugal's best-known literary figure. Jose Saramago was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1998, the first writer in Portuguese to receive the world's most prized literary award. His works have been translated into twenty-five languages. The book covers both his acclaimed historically-based fictions and his more recent, allegorical works, demonstrating the continuity of thought and image between these two phases of the writer's career. Particular attention is paid to questions of ideological content, the exploitation of specifically Portuguese literary and cultural traditions, and the novelist's place within the context of world literature. Frier makes a significant contribution to deepening general understanding of the author's writing in term of its literary background, its socio-political significance, and its reflections on the human condition. "The Novels of Jose Saramago: Echoes from the Past, Pathways into the Future" will be recommended reading for scholars of the work of Jose Saramago, for students of Hispanic Studies and for anyone interested in contemporary Portuguese literature.