The Chilean writer Antonio Skarmeta, whose most famous novel An ardent patience was adapted for cinema in 1994 with “The Postman”, where Philippe Noiret played Pablo Neruda, died Tuesday at the age of 83, his family announced to AFP.
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“ My father actually died this morning. It’s a long process that began years ago with Alzheimer’s disease and ended with natural death “, said Fabian Skarmeta.
His work, including a dozen novels, and numerous tales, stories, poems, works for young people and plays, has been awarded numerous prizes in the Spanish language. In 2014, he received the National Literature Prize from Chilethe highest national award.
“ Thank you, maestro, for the life you have lived. For stories, novels and theater. For political commitment », wrote the president of Chile, Gabriel Boricon his X account. He also thanked him for the television cultural program The show of the books (The Book Show) that Antonio Skarmeta hosted on Chilean television in the 90s and “ who expanded the boundaries of literature “.
His novel An ardent patiencepublished in 1987, recounts the friendly relationship of a young postman with Pablo Neruda. Michael Radford’s film adaptation won the Academy Award for Best Music in 1997.
Born on November 7, 1940 in Antofagasta, northern Chile, Antonio Skarmeta studied philosophy at the University of Chile, where he worked years later as a professor at the Faculty of Philosophy and a theater director. After Augusto Pinochet’s military coup in 1973, he went into exile first in Argentina, then in Germany, where he served as Chile’s ambassador in the 2000s.