British author Simon Mawer, whose "most famous book was his Booker Prize-shortlisted and Walter Scott Prize-winning The Glass Room," died February 12 at age 76, the Bookseller reported. Mawer's other works include Swimming to Ithaca; Mendel's Dwarf, which was a Los Angeles Times Award finalist; Tightrope; Prague Spring; and Ancestry. In 2013, he became one of only three authors to have made the Booker shortlist and been selected for the Richard and Judy Book Club (for The Girl Who Fell from the Sky). Mawer's Chimera won the McKitterick Prize for the best first novel by an author over 40; and The Fall won the Boardman Tasker Award (for mountain literature).
Richard Beswick, managing director of Little, Brown imprint Abacus and Mawer's publisher for 25 years, said, "Spending time with Simon was as stimulating and enjoyable as an editor-author relationship can possibly be. He was, quite simply, wonderful company--warm, funny and hugely knowledgeable about a wide range of subjects. There are not many writers who can take you convincingly from 16th-century Malta to the Russian invasion of Prague, and, like the author himself, his characters were always original and compelling, often displaying his natural empathy with the underdog."
Mawer's agent, Charles Walker, said: "It has been my greatest privilege to have known and represented Simon from the arrival of his first novel, Chimera, 36 years ago. Each new work was a joy to receive and set a new standard. He was a brilliant writer and delightful man whose work and friendship added enormously to my life and should continue to enrich all who read him."
Click here to read Mawer's 2012 interview with Shelf Awareness.
