US novelist Philip Roth dies at 85

Philip Roth, one of the most celebrated US novelists of the second half of the twentieth century, died on Tuesday. He was 85.

Blake Bailey, Roth's biographer, confirmed his death on Twitter. In a post, he wrote that the writer died "surrounded by lifelong friends who loved him deeply."

Read more: Philip Roth, prolific author and Trump opponent, at 85

Roth's literary agent, Andrew Wylie, said he died in a New York City hospital of congestive heart failure.

Roth was considered one of America's greatest modern authors, often mentioned alongside Saul Bellow, John Updike, Norman Mailer and Gore Vidal.  He was best known for mining the Jewish-American experience, saying "I don't write Jewish, I write American."

Roth, who lived in New York and Connecticut, was one of the most prolific writers of his generation, authoring more than 30 books before he announced his retirement in 2012. 

Nobel prize eluded him

He won multiple literary awards, including the Pulitzer prize in 1998 for "American Pastoral." Despite expectations to the contrary, he never won the Nobel prize for literature.

Roth was described by the Associated Press as "a fierce satirist and uncompromising realist, confronting readers in a bold, direct style that scorned false sentiment or hopes for heavenly reward."

But Roth, a Jew himself, was criticized for his unflattering depiction of the Jewish-American experience and for his portrayal of women as little more than objects of desire and rage. The Village Voice once condemned him as a misogynist in a front cover story. 

amp/rc (AFP, Reuters, dpa, AP)