MADRID -- Carlos Ruiz Zafon, author of the bestselling novel "The Shadow of the Wind" and one of the world's most popular Spanish writers, has died.
He was 55.
His Spanish publisher, Planeta, said in a news release today that Zafon died in Los Angeles.
It gave no cause of death, but Zafon was known to have cancer.
A tweet from the publisher included a quote from "The Shadow of the Wind," which earned Zafon international renown: "Every book, every volume you see, has a soul. The soul of the person who wrote it and the soul of those who read it and lived it and dreamed about it."
Born in Barcelona in 1964, Zafon worked as a publicist before becoming a full-time writer.
He got noticed in the early 1990s with the publication of the first volume of the "Mist Trilogy," including "The Prince of Mist," initially published as a young adult novel.
"The Shadow of the Wind," a literary thriller from 2001, is the first in his series "The Cemetery of Forgotten Books."
Planeta says his works have been translated into more than 50 languages and have won numerous prizes.
