British author Martin Amis dies in the United States at the age of 73

London, May 20 (EFE). – The British writer Martin Amis, who died at the age of 73, knew how to give shape like few others, with lofty novels such as “London Fields” (1989) or “Money” (1984) to the literary scene of this country during the 1980s.

Born in Oxford (England) in 1949, and died of esophageal cancer at his home in Lake Worth, Florida (USA), Amis was part of a distinguished and famous group of writers, rubbing shoulders with other great national writers such as Ian McEwan or Julian Barnes Or Salman Rushdie.

Alongside them, Amis’ work, with its dark vision of English society and distinctive style of storytelling, uniquely shaped and defined the glittering breadth of British literature four decades ago.

His novel Money was included among the hundred best books in English by the British newspaper The Guardian, which considered it still one of the “dominant” titles of that decade.

Undisputedly one of the most influential authors of his time, Amis was educated at schools in the United Kingdom, Spain and the United States during his formative years, before attending Exeter College, Oxford, where he graduated with honors in English.

The novelist, essayist and screenwriter was always grateful to his stepmother, novelist Elizabeth Jane Howard, for instilling in him a passion for literature.

He had already come to prominence with the publication of his first novel, Rachel’s Book (1973), a work of satire and grotesque, for which he won the Somerset Maugham Prize, and just a year later, the publication of his second title, Dead Babies.

Throughout his successful career, he served as literary editor for the New Statesman between 1977 and 1979, when his third book, Éxito, was published.

Despite himself, Amis could never avoid being frequently compared to his talented father, fellow writer Kingsley Amis, winner of the famous 1986 Booker Prize for his novel The Old Devils. Martin himself was among the finalists for the same award.

Regarding the constant reference to his father, Amis once commented in remarks to BBC Radio 4 that he wished he had put “more distance” between them.

However, he wrote specifically about him in his memoir The Experience (2000), in which he also delves into a breakup with his first wife and mother of his two children, American academic Antonia Phillips.

This work, on the other hand, describes what happens to him when he discovers that he is the father of a 17-year-old girl, Delilah Seal, whom he has not met before, and reflects on the life of his cousin Lucy Barrington. , was killed by criminals Fred and Rosemary West.

Personally, Amis began a relationship with Uruguayan-American writer Isabel Fonseca, whom he married in 1996 and with whom he has two daughters.

In addition to gaining praise for his fiction, Amis has starred throughout his life in occasional controversy for his outspoken opinions and for frequently taking a public stance on current politics.

In this sense, in 2006 he was accused of Islamophobia for giving an interview during which he made controversial statements about the Muslim community, which he later retracted.

He also advocated the setting up of euthanasia “booths” on the country’s streets to deal with the problem of an aging population in the UK and parted ways with his publisher, Jonathan Cape, after they refused him a license there. Half a million pounds for his novel “Information”.

In 2020 he published what is his latest work, Desde Dentro, which is defined as a new autobiography, forged over two decades, and was selected as a finalist for the National Book Critic’s Circle Award in the Fiction category.