Nobel laureate Alice Munro, the Canadian literary giant who became one of the world’s most esteemed contemporary authors and one of history’s most honoured short story writers, has died aged 92.
A spokesperson for her publisher confirmed the death of Munro, winner of the Nobel literary prize in 2013, but did not immediately provide further details.
Munro had been in frail health for years and often spoke of retirement, a decision that proved final after the author’s 2012 collection, Dear Life.
Often ranked with Anton Chekhov, John Cheever and a handful of other short story writers, Munro achieved stature rare for an art form traditionally placed beneath the novel.
She was the first lifelong Canadian to win the Nobel and the first recipient cited exclusively for short fiction.
Echoing the judgment of so many before, the Swedish academy pronounced her a “master of the contemporary short story” who could “accommodate the entire epic complexity of the novel in just a few short pages”.
Munro, little known beyond Canada until her late 30s, also became one of the few short story writers to enjoy ongoing commercial success.
Sales in North America alone exceeded one million copies and the Nobel announcement raised Dear Life to the high end of The New York Times’ bestseller list for paperback fiction.
Other popular books included Too Much Happiness, The View From Castle Rock and The Love Of A Good Woman.
