Editing José Saramago (section)

===Death and funeral===
[[File:Saramago.jpg|thumb|left|"Thank you José Saramago", [[Lisbon]], October 2010]]
Saramago suffered from [[leukemia]]. He died on 18 June 2010, aged 87, having spent the last few years of his life in [[Lanzarote]], Spain.<ref name=lea_dies>{{cite news |first=Richard |last=Lea |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/jun/18/jose-saramago-writer-nobel-dies |title=Nobel laureate José Saramago dies, aged 87 |location=London |newspaper=The Guardian |date=18 June 2010 |access-date=18 June 2010}}</ref> His family said that he had breakfast and chatted with his wife and translator Pilar del Río on Friday morning, after which he started feeling unwell and died.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/article472336.ece |title=Nobel-wiining[sic] novelist Saramago dies aged 87 |location=Chennai |newspaper=[[The Hindu]] |date=18 June 2010 |access-date=18 June 2010}}</ref> ''[[The Guardian]]'' described him as "the finest Portuguese writer of his generation",<ref name=lea_dies/> while Fernanda Eberstadt of ''[[The New York Times]]'' said he was "known almost as much for his unfaltering [[Communism]] as for his fiction".<ref name=eberstadt_dies>{{cite news |first=Fernanda |last=Eberstadt |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/19/books/19saramago.html?src=mv |title=José Saramago, Nobel Prize-Winning Writer, Dies |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=18 June 2010 |access-date=18 June 2010}}</ref>

Saramago's English language translator, [[Margaret Jull Costa]], paid tribute to his "wonderful imagination," calling him "the greatest contemporary Portuguese writer".<ref name=lea_dies/> Saramago continued his writing until his death. His most recent publication, ''Claraboia'', was published posthumously in 2011. Saramago had suffered from [[pneumonia]] a year before his death. Assuming a full recovery, he was set to appear at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in August 2010.<ref name=lea_dies/>

Portugal declared two days of mourning.<ref name=china_post_portugal_mourns>{{cite news |url=http://www.chinapost.com.tw/art/celebrity-news/2010/06/21/261516/Portugal-mourns.htm |title=Portugal mourns as Nobel laureate's body returned |newspaper=[[The China Post]] |date=21 June 2010 |access-date=21 June 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170730015124/http://www.chinapost.com.tw/art/celebrity-news/2010/06/21/261516/portugal-mourns.htm |archive-date=30 July 2017}}</ref><ref name=president_no-show/> There were tributes from senior international politicians: [[Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva]] (Brazil), [[Bernard Kouchner]] (France) and [[José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero]] (Spain), while Cuba's [[Raúl Castro|Raúl]] and [[Fidel Castro]] sent flowers.<ref name=china_post_portugal_mourns/>

Saramago's funeral was held in Lisbon on 20 June 2010, in the presence of more than 20,000 people, many of whom had travelled hundreds of kilometres, but also notably in the absence of right-wing [[President of Portugal]] [[Aníbal Cavaco Silva]], who was holidaying in the [[Azores]] as the ceremony took place.<ref name=xinhua_funeral>{{cite news |url=http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/culture/2010-06/21/c_13359797.htm |title=Portuguese Nobel laureate Saramago's funeral held |work=[[Xinhua News Agency]] |date=21 June 2010 |access-date=21 June 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100623123203/http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/culture/2010-06/21/c_13359797.htm |archive-date=23 June 2010}}</ref> Cavaco Silva, the Prime Minister who removed Saramago's work from the shortlist of the [[Aristeion Prize]], said he did not attend Saramago's funeral because he "had never had the privilege to know him".<ref name=president_no-show>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment_and_arts/10364807.stm |title=President defends Jose Saramago funeral no-show |work=[[BBC News]] |date=21 June 2010 |access-date=21 June 2010}}</ref> In an official press release, Cavaco Silva claimed having paid homage to the literary work of Saramago.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Correia |first=Hugo |date=June 20, 2010 |title=Saramago: Cavaco Silva diz ter cumprido obrigações como Presidente |url=https://www.publico.pt/2010/06/20/culturaipsilon/noticia/saramago-cavaco-silva-diz-ter-cumprido-obrigacoes-como-presidente-1442805 |access-date=July 26, 2024 |work=Público}}</ref> Mourners, who questioned Cavaco Silva's absence in the presence of reporters,<ref name=president_no-show/> held copies of the red carnation, symbolic of [[Carnation Revolution|Portugal's democratic revolution]].<ref name=xinhua_funeral/> Saramago's cremation took place in Lisbon,<ref name=xinhua_funeral/> and his ashes were buried on the anniversary of his death, 18 June 2011, underneath a hundred-year-old olive tree on the square in front of the José Saramago Foundation (Casa dos Bicos).<ref>Cinzas de Saramago são depositadas aos pés de uma oliveira, em Lisboa UOL (18 de junho de 2011).</ref>

[[File:Grave Memorial of José Saramago 04.jpg|thumb|right|Burial place of José Saramago's ashes.]]