British novelist Martin Amis died Friday at his Florida residence at the age of 73, according to the Booker Prize literary prize and several media this Saturday.
“He was one of the most acclaimed and commented authors of the last fifty years,” said the institution of the prestigious British literary prize. His wife, writer Isabel Fonseca told the New York Times and at Guardian that the author of Money, Money (1984) and London Fields (1989) died of oesophageal cancer.
Esophageal cancer
His death occurred the day of the presentation at Cannes of a film inspired by his book The Area of Interest (2014), which bears the same name and was directed by Jonathan Glazer. Set in Auschwitz, the novel tells the story of a Nazi officer who fell in love with the wife of the commandant of the extermination camp.
The “area of interest” was the term used by the Nazis to describe the 40 square kilometer area surrounding the Auschwitz concentration camp.
One of the fifty greatest British writers
Born in Wales in 1949, Martin Amis redefined British fictional literature of the 1980s and 1990s with dark and biting novels. He has notably written a book on the tragedy of September 11, entitled The second planeincluding articles, news and essays.
The Briton, who has written around ten novels, was twice nominated for the Booker Prize in 1991 for The arrow of time and in 2003 for Yellow Dog. THE Times named him in 2008 as one of the fifty greatest British writers since 1945.