Antonio Tabucchi, one of Italy's leading contemporary writers and a ferocious critic of billionaire former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, died in Lisbon on Sunday at the age of 68. Tabucchi died of cancer in the country that had become his second home, according to Italy's left-leaning newspaper La Repubblica, which worked closely with the author.
His funeral will take place on Thursday in the Portuguese capital. "A friend, a fellow traveller, a man who lived with passion and rage, a European intellectual, a great writer, has abandoned us," his Italian publisher Feltrinelli said in a statement.
Tabucchi, whose many works include "Indian Nocturne" and "Tristano Dies" and who has been translated into 40 languages, was also a professor who specialised in Portuguese literature.
An editor with a French publishing house said Tabucchi died in hospital surrounded by family members after suffering widespread cancer that was only discovered during an operation on his hip two weeks ago.
Best known in Italy for his relentless criticism of Berlusconi, Tabucchi invented an obese Catholic journalist who joined the struggle against fascism in Portugal under Salazar in his 1994 novel "Pereira Declares".
The work became a touchstone not only for freedom of information activists throughout the world but also for Italians opposed to Berlusconi's entry into politics the same year.
"Today is a sad day, a day of mourning for us all. With the death of Antonio Tabucchi we lose a great intellectual, a refined writer," said Antonio Di Pietro, leader of the opposition party Italy of Values.
Senate vice-president Vannino Chiti said he mourned the "painful loss" of a man who had left behind a "precious heritage" of literary work.
Tabucchi, several of whose novels have been adapted for the cinema, favoured simple writing revolving around ordinary people whose lives are transformed by travel, chance meetings or internal doubts.