British author Martin Amis died – culture

The British writer Martin Amis is dead. The author of novels such as “Greedy”, “London Fields” or “The Pregnant Widow” died on Friday at the age of 73, as the book publisher Penguin Random House UK announced on Saturday. Amis last lived in the USA. The New York Times had previously reported the death, citing the author’s wife, writer Isabel Fonseca.

Amis was considered one of the most important contemporary British authors. In an obituary, Penguin Random House described the author as a “literary prodigy” who published his debut novel at the age of 24. Editor Michal Shavit praised Amis as a “brilliantly funny” and “fearless” writer.

The son of author Kingsley Amis (1922-1995), his breakthrough novel was The Rachel Journal (1973), which won the Somerset Maugham Prize. His most famous works include “Greedy” (1984) and “London Fields” (1989). In it he described the absurdities of our time.

In 1996, the Briton married the US author Isabel Fonseca. Most recently, the couple lived in Florida. In 2015 his novel “Interessengebiet” was published in Germany. Amis describes an attempt at an affair in Auschwitz. The book caused controversy. The Hanser Verlag, which otherwise brings Amis’ books onto the German market, rejected it. In the end, the Swiss publishers, None and But, jumped in. Most recently, Amis published the novel “Inside Story” in 2020.