SPAIN: Award-winning Spanish author Javier Marías died on Sunday, aged 70, his publisher Alfaguara said. Javier Marías, who had been ill with a severe case of pneumonia for the previous month, wrote 16 books, including the trilogy Your Face Tomorrow, published between 2002 and 2007.
His best-known novels include “Corazón tan blanco” (“Heart So White”), “Todas las almas” (“All Souls”), and “Mañana en la batalla piensa en mí” (“Tomorrow in the Battle Think on Me”).
Several contemporary authors tuned in to pay their final respects to such a celebrated and revered writer.
Spanish novelist Eduardo Mendoza said in a tribute written for Spain’s daily newspaper El Pais, “Javier Marias was the best writer in Spain.”
“A sad day for Spanish literature,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez tweeted. “Javier Marías, one of the greatest writers of our age, has left us. His immense and talented body of work will be fundamental for Spanish literature. My condolences to his family and friends in these difficult moments.”
His books were translated into 46 different languages and sold almost 9 million copies across 56 countries, Alfaguara’s website says.
Javier Marías was a sharp translator and a columnist for El Pais, receiving a series of awards for his work. He was elected to Spain’s Royal Academy, the nation’s highest literary and linguistic authority, in 2006.
He was a Spanish literature and translation professor at Oxford and Wellesley College in Massachusetts in the 1980s. Last year, he was elected to Britain’s Royal Society of Literature as an International Writer.
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