-Essential...A vel that resounds with relevance for our own time.- --New York Times Book ReviewFirst 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 t unlike Saramago's own grandparents. Set in Alentejo, a southern province of Portugal kwn for its vast agricultural estates, the vel charts the lives of the Mau Tempos as national and international events rumble on in the background--the coming of the republic in Portugual, the two world wars, and an attempt on the dictator Salazar's life. Yet thing really impinges on the grim reality of the farm laborers' lives until the first communist stirrings. Raised from the Ground is Saramago's most deeply personal vel, the book in which he found the signature style and voice that distinguishes all of his brilliant works.