First published in 1980, the City of Lisbon Prize winning Raised from the Ground follows the changing fortunes of the Mau Tempo family - poor, landless peasants not unlike Saramago'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 laborers' lives until the first communist stirrings.

Finally published for the first time in English, Raised from the Ground is Saramago's most autobiographical and deeply personal novel.