“Clarabóia” (Skylight), a previously unpublished novel written by Portuguese Nobel laureate José Saramago has finally reached the bookstores, after having been tacitly rejected by publishers in the 1950s. The now posthumously published novel was one of the first he ever completed, and after its overall rejection Saramago made the drastic decision to give up pursuing a career in writing. Although he later changed his mind, he never wanted “Clarabóia” to be published while he was still alive.

The novel is the second book the Azinhaga-born writer ever penned. Described as an “ingenuous novel” by the author himself in an interview, “Clarabóia” is the story of six people living in a block of flats topped by a skylight, “an accurate portrait of Lisbon’s middle-class in the mid-20th century”, according to the novel’s sleeve notes. “I don’t think the book is badly planned”, Saramago once said. “I think the novel already had something of my way of being”.

The author of metaphorical novels “Blindness” – later made into a film by Fernando Meirelles starring Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo - , 18th century fable “Baltasar and Blimunda” and “The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis” - a social critique of the first years of the Portuguese dictatorship as told by one of the pen names of poet Fernando Pessoa – died in June 2010 and is remembered for his strong character.

Before his death Saramago had been living in self-imposed exile on the island of Lanzarote in the Spanish Canary Islands after a government official excluded his novel “The Gospel According to Jesus Christ” – a personal interpretation of a ‘human’ Jesus – from the shortlist for the 1992 European Literature Prize. Sharing a home with his second wife and sole Spanish translator Pilar del Rio, Saramago never severed his ties with his home country. However, he was an outspoken advocate of an Iberian union that would bring together Portugal and Spain, much to the dismay of his fellow countrymen historically used to animosity against their neighbours.

“Clarabóia”, which was launched yesterday in bookshops, has been available in ebook format since 1 October.