Description

First published in 1980, Saramago s prizewinning novel Raised from the Ground follows the changing fortunes of the Mau-Tempo family – poor, landless peasants not unlike the author s own grandparents. Set in Alentejo, a southern province of Portugal known for its vast agricultural estates, Saramago charts the lives of the Mau-Tempos as national and international events rumble on in the background – the coming of the republic in Portugal, the First and Second World Wars, and an attempt on the dictator Salazar s life. Yet, nothing really impinges on the grim reality of the farm labourers lives until the first communist stirrings.