LAKE WORTH BEACH, Fla. — Martin Amis, a novelist whose works including “The Zone of Interest” redefined British fiction during the 1980s and 1990s, died Friday. He was 73.
Amis died at his home in Lake Worth Beach, Florida, The New York Times reported. His wife, author Isabel Fonseca, told the newspaper that the cause of death was esophageal cancer.
Amis published 15 novels, a memoir and several works of nonfiction, according to the Times.
His 1984 novel, “Money” was named by The Guardian as among the 100 best novels written in English.
He was also known for his “London trilogy” of novels, which include “Money: A Suicide Note” (1985), “London Fields” (1990) and “The Information” (1995), according to Variety. His murder mystery “Night Train” was adapted into the 2018 movie “Out of Blue,” according to the entertainment news outlet.
“The Zone of Interest” follows the family of a high-ranking SS officer that lives next door to the Auschwitz concentration camp, Variety reported. The novel was called “chilling and profound” by critics.
“What I’ve tried to do is to create a high style to describe low things: the whole world of fast food, sex shows, nude mags,” Amis told The New York Times Book Review in a 1985 interview. “I’m often accused of concentrating on the pungent, rebarbative side of life in my books, but I feel I’m rather sentimental about it. Anyone who reads the tabloid papers will rub up against much greater horrors than I describe.”
Amis’ 2000 memoir, “Experience,” examined the relationship with his father, “Lucky Jim” author Kingsley Amis, according to Variety.
Martin Amis was born on Aug. 25, 1949, in Oxford, and educated at schools in Britain, Spain and the U.S., The Guardian reported. He later graduated from Exeter College in Oxford, with first-class honors in English, according to the newspaper.
He became an editorial assistant at The Times Literary Supplement in 1972, becoming its fiction and poetry editor two years later, the Times reported. In 1975, he joined the editorial staff of The New Statesman magazine and within about a year he was its literary editor, according to the newspaper.
He wrote his first novel, “The Rachel Papers,” in 1973, followed three years later by “Dead Babies,” the Times reported.