British novelist Martin Amis dies aged 73

The announcement took place on Saturday May 20, the day of the Cannes presentation of a film inspired by his book The Area of ​​Interest, directed by Jonathan Glazer. British novelist Martin Amis died Friday at his residence in Florida (United States) at the age of 73, the Booker Prize and several media announced on Saturday. The institution of the prestigious British literary prize hailed “one of the most acclaimed and commented authors of the last 50 years”.

Writer Isabel Fonseca, his wife with whom he had two daughters, told the New York Times and at Guardian that the author of Money, Money (1984) and London Fields (1989) died of oesophageal cancer.

Publisher Vintage Books thought “devastated” by the death of Martin Amis. “He leaves an impressive legacy and an indelible mark on Britain’s cultural landscape, and he will be sorely missed.”Vintage said on his Twitter account.

Twice nominated for the Booker Prize

Born in Wales in 1949, Martin Amis redefined British fictional literature of the 1980s and 1990s with dark and biting novels. The writer became known with Money, moneypublished in 1984. With a very biting humour, he denounces the lure of profit in Great Britain under Margaret Thatcher and in the United States under Ronald Reagan.

The Briton was twice nominated for the Booker Prize, in 1991 for The arrow of time and in 2003 for Yellow Dog. In addition to his ten novels, he has published two collections of stories and eight works of non-fiction. The 1990s marked the height of his literary career, even though he was accused of misogyny and, later, of Islamophobia – charges he always firmly rejected.

In recent decades he had become a notorious intellectual, appearing frequently on television. THE Times named him in 2008 as one of the fifty greatest British writers since 1945.