The author of 15 novels died of esophageal cancer at his home in Florida, his wife said. It was the same disease that killed his close friend, journalist Christopher Hitchens.
Renowned British novelist Martin Amis has passed away at the age of 73.
His wife, author Isabel Fonseca, said the author died of esophageal cancer on Friday at their home in Lake Worth, Florida.
It was the same disease that killed his close friend, journalist Christopher Hitchens.
Amis published 15 novels and is best known for his books Money: A Suicide Note and London Fields.
His publisher, Vintage Books, said, “We are devastated at the death of our author and friend, Martin Amis: novelist, essayist, memoirist, critic, stylist supreme.”
“For 40 years Martin Amis steered the UK publishing world: first by defining what it meant to be a literary wunderkind by releasing his first novel aged only 24; influencing a generation of prose stylists doing; and often encompassing entire eras with his books, perhaps most notably with his classic novel, Money.
“He constantly engaged with current events and the contemporary world, never afraid to tackle the biggest issues and questions of the day in books including The Second Plane and his essay collection, The Rube of Time.
At the same time his work often explored important periods in history, particularly the Holocaust, which he wrote about distinctly and powerfully in novels such as Time’s Arrow and The Zone of Interest.
“Throughout it all, his love of literature shone fiercely: Experience, The War Against Cliché and others all brought a light to the world in which he had lived his whole life.”
Amis was the son of noted novelist Kingsley Amis, who rose to fame with his book Lucky Jim and died in 1995.
The Booker Prize tweeted: “We are saddened to hear that Martin Amis, one of the most acclaimed and celebrated novelists of the last 50 years, has passed away.
“Our thoughts are with his family and friends.”
Amis was twice shortlisted for the Booker Prize for his novels Time’s Arrow and Yellow Dog. His memoir Experience was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.
The author was born on 25 August 1949 in Oxford. He read nothing but comic books until his stepmother, novelist Elizabeth Jane Howard, introduced him to Jane Austen, whom he often cited as his early influence.
He studied English at Exeter College, Oxford and graduated in 1971 with a first congratulation.
Amis was part of a group of writers including Hitchens, Salman Rushdie, Ian McEwan and Julian Barnes.