Javier Marias, Spain’s most prestigious novelist of the past 50 years, has died aged 70, his publisher said.
Spanish news agency EFE said Marias died in a hospital after not recovering from a lung infection.
Marias was the author of 15 novels, translations and collections of his weekly newspaper columns.
His best known novels include Corazon Tan Blanco (Heart So White), Todas Las Almas (All Souls) and Mañana En La Batalla Piensa En Mi (Tomorrow In The Battle Think On Me).
The great Spanish writer Javier Marías has just passed away. He writes, wittily, lyrically, about time, about books, about the experience of being human. Some recommendations: "All Souls," "Tomorrow in the Battle Think on Me," "A Heart So White." RIP pic.twitter.com/jF9L2KmIRN
— Luis Garicano 🇪🇺🇺🇦 (@lugaricano) September 11, 2022
Many of his works have been translated into English and other languages.
He was considered for years to be the leading Spanish candidate to win the Nobel Prize for Literature since Camilo Jose Cela was awarded the honour in 1989.
“(This is) a sad day for Spanish literature,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez tweeted.
“Javier Marias, one of the greatest writers of our age, has left us.
The melancholy news of the death of Javier Marias. A true master. He had two apartments, one where everything was white, one where everything was black. He was also an extra in The Castle of Fu Manchu. He was a riveting interviewee. pic.twitter.com/B3tqCJ4M5I
— Matthew Sweet (@DrMatthewSweet) September 11, 2022
“His immense and talented body of work will be fundamental for Spanish literature.
“My condolences for his family and friends in these difficult moments.”
Marias was elected to Spain’s Royal Academy, the nation’s highest literary and linguistic authority, in 2006.
Winner of several international fiction prizes, he was professor of Spanish literature and translation at Oxford and at Wellesley College in Massachusetts in the 1980s.
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